Georgetown : President Donald Ramotar joined Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the opening of the
13th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS) in the Indian capital, New Delhi, under the
theme `The Global Challenge of Resource Efficient Growth and Development’.
Guyana was invited for a third year to participate by Dr. R.K Pachauri, Nobel Prize Laureate and
Director-General, The Energy and Research Institute (TERI) and recently appointed Chairman of
the Iwokrama Board of Trustees. President Donald Ramotar, former President Bharrat Jagdeo
and Shyam Nokta from the Office of the President are representing Guyana.
Other Leaders in attendance include Mr. Anote Tong, President of Kiribati and Ms Tarja Halonen,
Former President, Finland and Lord John Prescott, Former British Deputy Prime Minister.
Following on from the Rio+20 Conference in June 2012, DSDS 2013 is providing an important
forum to discuss the need for the global community to move towards higher efficiency in the
use of resources in general and a low carbon path of development.
President Ramotar participated in a Leadership Panel which discussed `Defining the Future We
Want’. The Panel was chaired by Ambassador C. Dasgupta, Distinguished Fellow from TERI and
included Mr. Anote Tong, President of Kiribati, Mr. James Alex Michel, President of Seychelles
and Dr. Pachauri.
In their remarks, both Prime Minister Singh and President Ramotar emphasised the need to
keep the world’s focus on poverty alleviation and equity. President Ramotar said that without
this focus, it will not be possible to tackle climate change because the world’s poor would not be
included in the solution. He emphasised the need for partnerships. He spoke on Guyana’s
climate initiatives and the valuable lessons being learnt from the Low Carbon Development
Strategy (LCDS) and the support being provided by Norway to the implementation of the LCDS.
His support for the idea that countries and large regions can lead was echoed by the Former
Governor of Florida and the Former Premier of Quebec. The UK’s Lord Prescott also spoke of the
importance of strong political will to address those who seek to prevent progress on climate
change and low carbon development.
President Ramotar emphasised the importance of forests to climate change mitigation and the
need to identify approaches that would allow countries to maintain their forests and natural
resources for the good of the global community but at the same time not compromise their
ability to promote sustained economic grow the national and local level.
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The DSDS, organised annually by TERI since 2001, is an international undertaking that provides a platform for knowledge exchange and debate on all aspects of sustainable development. Over the past ten years, it has emerged as one of the most important forums on global sustainability issues, with a focus on developing world solutions.
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