President Dr. Irfaan Ali on Tuesday night said that many countries are interested in purchasing Guyana’s remaining carbon credits, making it possible for the country to earn millions more as it continues to protect its intact forests.
“Today as I speak to you, we have many approaches from different countries for trading of the remaining 70 per cent of carbon (credits).
“This will earn us hundreds of millions of US dollars annually,” the Guyanese Head of State told a gathering of Indian investors in Indore.
Earlier in the day, the government announced that United States (US) oil giant Hess corporation made its first payment of US$75 million (or GY$15.6 billion) to Guyana as part of the new venture where Guyana receives payments for saving its forests.
In total, Hess will purchase some 30 per cent of Guyana’s special, certified carbon credits for at least US$750 million.
What Hess is doing is voluntarily paying Guyana for these credits to support Guyana’s forest-saving efforts that help to trap harmful carbon dioxide from the environment. In doing so, the oil company is also offsetting its own harmful carbon emissions that contribute to the climate crisis.
And President Ali was keen on noting that there is high interest in the remaining 70 per cent of carbon credits Guyana can market.
This is so, he said, because Guyana is the first and only country to have these special ART TREES credits while also being the first country to broker a voluntary agreement with a major oil company.
Meanwhile, Dr. Ali said that Guyana offers many other unique investment opportunities from food production to manufacturing.
Particularly on food production, the President said that Guyana is poised to become a leading food producer in Latin America and the Caribbean- well able to help feed a market of some 400 million people.
Guyana is currently leading an ambitious food production plan within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) where it hopes that the bloc will be able to slash at least 25 per cent of its costly food imports by 2025.
