Bharrat Jagdeo conferred with honorary doctorate of philosophy

Former President, Bharrat Jagdeo, last week received an honorary doctorate of philosophy from Nobel Prize Laureate, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Chairman and TERI University of India, Chancellor, Dr Rajendra Pachauri.

In a ceremony at the university’s New Delhi campus, Dr Pachauri highlighted the former president’s keen interest in climate and his outstanding work.

“There are very few heads of government in the world who understand the scientific, economic and social dimensions of climate change like President Jagdeo. His sense of the global injustice that climate change represents is combined with a very rare understanding of key issues, and a global vision of suitable solutions.

“What he has achieved in Guyana proves that developing countries can lead the way towards developing and implementing climate solutions. Now that he is no longer president of his country, I hope that his vision and skills can be deployed to an even greater extent to help the world face up to the climate challenges we are confronted with. (Former) President Jagdeo as a global leader of rare distinction must remain in the vanguard of global actions for meeting the challenge of climate change.”

Dr Pachauri accepted the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former U. S. Vice President, Al Gore. Dr Pachauri accepted the prize on behalf of the IPCC, established by the United Nations and consisting of most of the world’s governments.

Jagdeo in accepting the award said: “I want to express my deep appreciation to Dr Pachauri and to TERI University for the honour they have granted me, but more importantly, for the work that they do. Climate change is a problem of existential proportions for large numbers of the world’s most vulnerable people.

“Progressive citizens, organisations and governments in every part of the world must keep up the pressure on those who try to stop us from taking the action we need to take to avert climate catastrophe. The work of Dr Pachauri and TERI University builds on the empirical evidence base we need to further that action. They are also helping to craft the building blocks of the new global economy – where we meet the challenge of a larger, richer global population through development that is environmentally sustainable, as well as economically and socially progressive.”

Jagdeo was named as one of Time Magazine’s Heroes of the Environment in 2008, and received a Champion of the Earth Award from the United Nations Environment Programme in 2010. He served on the United Nations’ secretary general’s Advisory Group on Climate Finance in 2010, and is a board member of the Global Green Growth Institute.

This is the third honorary doctorate that President Jagdeo has received. In 2010, President Jagdeo was conferred with an honorary doctorate by the People’s Friendship University of Russia, and in 2011, he also received an honorary doctorate from the DY Patil University of Mumbai, India.

Also receiving honorary doctorates were Norway Environment Minister Eric Solheim and Nobel Prize winner and Distinguished Professor from Indiana University, Dr Elinor Ostrom.

Since 2009, Guyana has been promoting its Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), building on a vision set out by President Jagdeo in 2008, when he said “we need to make combating climate change and promoting national development complementary, not conflicting, priorities”.

The LCDS is advancing through a combination of domestic public and private investments, and the world’s second largest payment for ecosystems services deal with the government of Norway, under which Norway pays Guyana for its “forest climate services”.

Guyana is maintaining the majority of its 18 million hectare forest, and investing revenues from forest climate services into clean energy, social development and low carbon economic sectors. Norway intends to pay Guyana up to US$ 250 million for climate services up to 2015, and to date US$ 70 million has been paid. Guyana is using some of this money to catalyse private finance into clean energy, and remove 92 per cent of the country’s energy related emissions by 2016.

Other investments include enabling solar power for every indigenous home in the country, upgrading governance capabilities, progressing land titling for indigenous peoples and building an Amerindian (indigenous) Development Fund, creating a world class centre for bio-diversity research, and investing in low carbon development opportunities for small and medium enterprises in all parts of Guyana.