PPP plans to scrap Govt’s 20-year strategy to develop green state if re-elected

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo says the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) will scrap the APNU+AFC’s Green State Development Strategy (GSDS) if it is re-elected to office.

The Ministry of the Presidency’s Department of Environment on Tuesday said it concluded the process to develop the GSDS: Vision 2040 to guide Guyana’s national development policies for the next 20 years. The Department said the strategy, a signature of the coalition Government, will be launched in September.

“I have made it clear that the PPP will scrap this approach so the Green State Strategy, when they launch it in September, it will just be a good opportunity for photos, photo opportunities for the President and another speech…touting the green credentials of [the] Government,” the Opposition Leader said at his weekly press conference where he compared the strategy to his Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).

Jagdeo said the Government’s strategy is no match for the LCDS which was spearheaded by him.

“What is different about our LCDS is it is an economic strategy that sought to move Guyana to prosperity and our people to greater wealth and benefits using a decarbonised, cleaner energy and a greener pathway.”

“in their case, it is about an environmental strategy that they’re hoping to super-impose on the country and therefore, it requires funding from our sources and secondly, could even cause us to lose jobs.”

Referring to millions of dollars of revenues received for forest carbons from Norway, Jagdeo said the LCDS is more feasible. He alluded to the provision of funds for land titling and other development projects.

The Government is developing the GSDS alongside the oil and gas industry; it expected that the revenue from oil and gas will be used to fund renewable energy projects and other green initiatives which will push the country’s development.