Remarks by UN Resident Coordinator at the Environmental Protection Agency's World Environment Day exhibition

Thank you for this invitation to join you today.

My heartfelt congratulations to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for this fantastic event.  Special thanks to Mr. Kemraj Parsram with whom I’ve enjoyed a growing partnership in coordination.  

 “Only One Earth” - this was the slogan of the 1972 Stockholm Conference.

50 years on, the “Only One Earth” slogan rings ever more true with humanity facing the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss.

The World Environment Day calls on us to celebrate the planet through collective environmental action - collective action of individuals, of companies and of countries on all these three fronts.

Your Excellency, Honourable Ministers:

Allow me to share a UN perspective on this triple planetary crisis – this is not a UN perspective looking at Guyana from the conference halls of Global Summits, but rather a UN perspective from where I am standing right here in beautiful Guyana looking at the globe.

First, climate change.

The world is on a dangerous path to global warming - falling short of the targets agreed to in Paris. Hence the UN Secretary General’s clarion call to countries and to companies around the world to stop adding fuel to fire.  

With science and facts so clear, how can we square this urgent call for climate action with the aspirations of the people of Guyana and oil/gas production? This is not an easy one. Let me offer two lines of thinking on this.

The first is the extraordinary costs which countries like Guyana must bear for climate change adaptation, that is for protecting themselves from the catastrophic impacts of extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and drought.

At inter-governmental platforms, including at the UN General Assembly and the COP last year, Your Excellency, YOU called on those countries with historical responsibilities for where we are today, to rise to the UN target of US$100 billion financing for climate action.

While many pledges and new instruments were introduced at COP, including market-based financing mechanisms which Guyana is spearheading, progress has been slow – indeed, too slow for the urgency of Guyana’s needs, for climate resilient infrastructure,  agriculture, education, health.  Yet, for the first time in its history Guyana can invest in these priorities and mobilize the much-needed financing to do so from international and even private sources precisely because of its oil and gas resources.  So that’s the very real financing line.

The second is Guyana’s own low carbon development model, as described in the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS 2030).

I refer in particular to energy transition targets of the LCDS for cleaner and renewable sources: if those targets are achieved, it would see the country meet a tenfold increase in demand for electricity by 2040 whilst retaining greenhouse gas emissions at 2018 levels.

This, ladies and gentlemen, would be an extraordinary example of how economic growth, admittedly made possible by oil and gas, can be decoupled from CO2 emissions and possibly even become an instrument for a net zero future.

My office in Guyana stands ready to work with you, with civil society and academe in Guyana and with the international community in advancing this extraordinary example.  

We may not be able to square the circle in climate action, but these two lines of thought and action help us understand the choices that Guyana has to advance climate action and achieve the SDGs.

Let me turn to biodiversity loss – the second vector of the triple planetary crisis: Guyana’s protection of its rainforest is an achievement of which you are rightly proud. There are of course pressures on Guyana’s biodiversity from traditional sectors such as agriculture and mining. 

UN Agencies in Guyana are proud partners to you and many of the civil society organizations here today to help mitigate these pressures. Working with the Ministry of Agriculture and others for example, FAO is supporting sustainable land use and management and UNDP is supporting mercury reduction for biodiversity protection – both often working with indigenous Amerindian communities whose traditional knowledge is itself a custodian of the environment and biodiversity – as recognized by UNESCO.

Yet, the very developments which will help get Guyana on path to achieving the SDGs, in infrastructure, in trade, in food security will also create additional stresses on the natural environment. Therefore, I wholeheartedly welcome the commitments to increase Guyana’s protected areas coverage beyond the current 8.5%. Going to Kunming, China later this year, I hope that you will join the new global target to protect 30% of terrestrial and marine ecosystems by 2030.

Turning to pollution - the third vector of the triple planetary crisis: The recent experience in Peru demonstrates that we can never reduce risks of oil spills to zero. Therefore, we welcome the preparedness work which your Government is pursuing with the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan. I urge you and avail of the UN’s resources and partnerships to continuously bolster the disaster risk reduction capacities of your country as called for in that National Plan and others, including those supported by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR).

Again, on pollution – at the historic UN Environment Assembly in March 2022, Guyana, agreed to develop an international treaty on plastics management by 2024. Guyana’s rich terrestrial and marine ecosystems depend very much on management of waste, including plastics.

Indeed, I am proud to note that the UN Environment Programme, today’s lead UN Agency, is working with the AG’s office on waste legislation. We also stand ready to support you in new solid waste management programmes, especially on plastics.

In closing, let me return to where we began: to our collective responsibility to stand up for planet Earth.

It’s not easy: the triple planetary crisis cannot be addressed by the actions of any single individual, company or even any single country! And yet… it will not be addressed unless all individuals, all countries and all companies start prioritising and acting differently.

On this World Environment Day, let's commit to do so.

Thank you.