GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – The Guyana government says it is in no rush to sell the country’s remaining carbon credit, although Georgetown hopes to move forward with a second agreement.
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said if Guyana is to move forward with another agreement, the market conditions would have to be “favorable.
“There is no urgency; there is no pressure on us to do that,” he said, adding, “We are in a comfortable position to explore the markets that way.”
In December 2022, Guyana signed its first-ever, historic multi-year agreement with the US-based oil and gas company Hess Corporation, resulting in the company purchasing 2.5 million carbon credits annually for the years 2016-2030.
It came after the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) revealed that it had issued 33.5 million TREES credits to Guyana – the first country to receive such status. That agreement is expected to generate US$750 million in revenue over ten years and will fund developmental projects in Amerindian communities and support Guyana’s climate adaptation efforts.
Jagdeo said while the agreement has attracted potential buyers worldwide, the market has softened due to what occurred at the just concluded United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 28) held in Dubai in December.
Jagdeo had said then that there were many disappointing outcomes of the conference and that the main disappointment had been the lack of progress on developing carbon markets.
“We thought that advancing the carbon markets would create greater incentives to ensure that forested countries can raise money through the market mechanism to out-compete alternate uses and preserve their forests without taking away their forests as a development tool,” Jagdeo said then.
But he now says he remains optimistic similar agreements can be advanced.
“We have a strong product. We’re fortified by a solid agreement that defied market expectations, and now we have a few interested people. However, the problem with the market is what happened at COP. The market softened a bit because of COP, but we believe we could advance the sale through bilateral deals similar to the one we did with Hess,” Jagdeo said.
Guyana has already received its first tranche of carbon credit monies, totaling US$75 million in 2023, of which US$22 million was directly invested in Amerindian villages across Guyana.
The program has led to implementing around 500 economic projects, boosting the villages’ entrepreneurial and institutional capabilities.
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