At Ceremony For New Solar Plant, Guyana's President Urges Commitment to Climate Change Preparedness

GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Guyana Tuesday urged the international community to live up to its commitment in helping small island developing states (SIDS) deal with the impact of global change, even as Georgetown indicated its preparedness to help the region in that regard.

The New Solar Photovoltaic Power Generation Plant on the grounds of the CARICOM Secretariat (Guyana DPI photo)President Irfaan Ali, at the handing over ceremony of the Solar Photovoltaic Power Generation Plant developed on the grounds of CARICOM headquarters, said SIDS in the Caribbean are "exposed to climate change and climate events".

“There must be a more aggressive deployment of resources to help us to advance our technologies, to help us in our mitigation measures and help us in our adaptation measures.

‘We are showing and demonstrating with the little resources that we have that we are capable of making big decisions, we are capable of providing leadership and we are capable of doing what is right and playing our part in the fight against climate change”.

But Ali told the ceremony that there is need for support and that it is unfortunate that while there is much talk about commitment “we are seeing no real attempt in translating those commitments to projects on the ground”

Ali said he was asked by journalists whether he believes the international community is serious about its commitments to SIDS, and his response has been ‘we do not want to believe that it is not credible, we believe that the commitment is credible but there needs to be urgent action in demonstrating that commitment by not adding conditions to the countries but by supporting the existing pipeline of projects to meet the targets we have outlined individually and collectively as a region”.

Ali said that every CARICOM country has already outlined a strategy, “but that strategy has to be supported and I use this opportunity on behalf of the region to call upon all these agencies, other organizations and all those who would have made the commitment to demonstrate that commitment by addressing the ends of the most affected area in the globe, that is the CARICOM region and to put urgent measures in helping us with our adaptation and mitigation”.

Guyana's President said that Georgetown was prepared to help the region develop its energy intensive small and medium scale industries through energy sector studies, technology deployment as well as the enabling environment for large scale adoption of energy efficient technology.

In addition, his country is prepared to assist the region in research, transfer and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies in the context of climate change as well as in capacity building among other areas.

A CARICOM Secretariat statement said that the 400-kilowatt solar generation project was undertaken through a US$17.8 million grant agreement between the governments of Guyana and Japan with seven million US dollars being used for the building energy management systems

More than 1 500 solar panels have been erected, setting up servers and batteries, building a car port and allotting space for educational/recreational activities and the Secretariat said that the building is expected to get all of its energy from solar-based sources on a majority of its operating days.

“It is anticipated that the benefits the Secretariat will derive from the project will serve as an example of the transformation that can occur in public buildings across the Region and, by extension, an example of how the Region can utilize the renewable energy resources at its disposal to move towards greater energy efficiency and resilience.”

Japan’s ambassador to Guyana, Tatsuo Hirayama, told the ceremony that while the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic affected the progress of the project, Tokyo has always enjoyed a fruitful relationship with CARICOM.

“Japan and the CARICOM share a number of universal values that include democracy, rule of law and market economy. Based on these shared values Japan has enjoyed a very strong history of cooperation and mutual support with the CARICOM member countries and the Secretariat,” he said, recalling that at the JAPAN-CARICOM meeting held in Jamaica a wide range of projects were discussed.

“We certainly would like to continue as well as strengthen our dialogue with CARICOM member countries. We, Japan and the CARICOM also share similar challenges, nationally, regionally and globally including natural disasters, climate change and the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.”

But he said despite these challenges the cooperation and collaboration have been progressing good “making us more resilient and less vulnerable”.

He said with regards to the issue of climate change Japan at the recently held United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP 26) had reiterated its commitment to net zero emissions by 2050 and reducing greenhouse gases by 2030 by at least 46 per cent.

He said Japan is also providing more funding  in addition to the US$60 billion announced last year “making it clear that Japan would be working vigorously to take on climate change, a common challenge of human kind”.

Earlier, CARICOM Secretary General, Dr. Carla Barnett the ambition which this project represents is anchored within a regional strategy, which commits all member states to pursue opportunities for integrating renewable energy resources with energy efficiency measures to meet energy needs in support of economic, social architecture and environmental sustainability.

“Growth is fragile and vulnerable for CARICOM countries. We are exposed to hazardous features over which we have little control or influence. The current pandemic serves as a manifestation of this.  “The exposure of our countries to a variety of global shocks is greatly heightened by the challenge of adapting to extreme weather events, which interrupt economic development and force us to adjust public and private sector investment to the severe losses and damages caused by these events. “

She said that the innovative design principles, which underlie this project, take the natural hazards of the project site, such as flooding into consideration and reflects the approach promoted within integrated resource and resilience planning, through which CARICOM member state are already developing Integrated Resource and Resilience Plans.

“These plans promote the “shifting” of their electricity systems away from the traditional, legacy designs to modern, smart and resilient alternatives that are capable of more effectively supporting their national targets on sustainable energy and climate, in particular, and their sustainable development and investment goals in general.”

She told the ceremony that the new power generation system is expected to generate more electricity than is required by the Secretariat for its operation on an annual basis, and the expectation is that the available excess energy would “feed in” to the utility grid during its off peak operation periods.

“The Secretariat is seeking to conclude the legal arrangements, which will attend the bi-directional flow of electricity with Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL), within this quarter.