Gov’t, Clinton Foundation sign MOU on renewable energy

Guyana will be benefitting from expert advice about all renewable energy possibilities through a pact with the Clinton Foundation’s Climate Initiative that was signed on Wednesday between Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and Clinton Foundation’s Climate Initiative Clean Energy Director Jan Hartke.
President Donald Ramotar and head of the Climate Change Unit of the Office of the President, Shyam Nokta witnessed the signing, which can be considered another milestone of Guyana’s low carbon trajectory quest.
Clinton Foundation Programme Officer David Alcaly and Global Coordinator of Sids Dock Energy Al Binger were also witnesses at the Office of the President.
The agreement commits the Clinton Climate Initiative to the service of the Guyana government in an advisory capacity with a team of experts in business “to package programmes for renewable energy that have a commercial capability to attract major financing,” Hartke said.
“We’re advisors, we recommend, we don’t make any decisions, the sovereign nation makes all of those decisions,” Hartke said.
The director, who has frequented Guyana on numerous occasions, said he is fully au fait with the Guyana government’s renewable energy vision, and the many interventions made through the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).
Among them is a solar energy programme in the hinterland that has equipped about 15,000 households with photovoltaic systems that accumulate about two megawatts of power, according to Prime Minister Hinds.
“The political leadership here has shown vision and has shown a commitment to the communities to make sure that they know what was going on… I think that kind of political leadership is one of the things that the Clinton Climate Initiative is all about,” Hartke said.
The Clinton Foundation had been a key supporter in the preliminary work on Guyana’s LCDS. The strategy seeks to strike a balance between sustained management of the country’s forest and unhindered economic development.
The Amaila Falls Hydropower Project (AFHP) is a key component of the strategy that is projected to account for 90 per cent of the country’s energy generation and reduce the need for fossil fuel consumption. It is hoped that the financial arrangements for the project will be concluded by the middle of next year.
“We are very deeply interested in renewable energy,” President Ramotar said as he made reference to the heavy cost incurred to import fuel.
“Now that we have developed to such a stage… I think that we can benefit in cutting down that cost and using clean energy with what is now demanded of the world today, with all the problems of climate change and other issues,” President Ramotar said
The Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) was launched in August 2006, to fight against climate change through a business-oriented approach to reduce carbon emissions, increase energy efficiency and provide access to clean energy technology and reverse deforestation.