Georgetown : Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman reported that Cabinet has agreed that Guyana will sign on to ratify the Paris Cop21 Agreement. This agreement sets out a global action plan to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C.
Addressing the media at the post-Cabinet briefing at the Ministry of the Presidency, Minister Trotman explained that Cabinet has specifically agreed that Guyana’s representative at a high-level signing ceremony to be convened at the United Nations Headquarters on April 22 will be Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vice President, Carl Greenidge.
He said that Cabinet will prepare the instrument of ratification indicating that Guyana has completed all the necessary processes that signify consent to be bound by the agreement. Cabinet will approve as well Guyana’s first Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) to be submitted alongside the instrument of ratification, he said.
Guyana submitted a revised INDC to the United Nations Standards Coordinating Committee (UNSCC) in November of 2015. This revised INDC proposes a set of policies, measures and actions focusing on the forestry and energy sectors, Minister Trotman said. He said that it proposes to implement emission reduction programmes in the timber and mining sectors that can contribute up to 48.7 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide or its equivalent to the global mitigation efforts, while developing a 100 percent renewable power supply by 2025.
The Paris Cop21 Agreement came into being in December of 2015 in Paris, France. The agreement was adopted by all parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on December 12, 2015. It has been hailed as the most ambitious international environmental agreement in history.
The Caribbean Community played a significant role in the crafting the agreement with a set of negotiating positions articulated in the Barbados Declaration of Climate Change which was later adopted by the CARICOM Heads of Government in July of 2015.
For the agreement to be entered into force and be legally binding at least 55 countries, which account for 55 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions must ratify or approve the agreement through their own domestic legal systems.
