…discusses urban renewal initiatives in Guyana with The King’s Foundation
President Dr Irfaan Ali recently met with the United Kingdom’s Minister for Climate in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State), Katie White, on advancing cooperation between the two countries.
During the engagement in London, the Guyanese Head of State and the UK Minister held discussions on strengthening collaboration on forests, climate change, and biodiversity.
President Ali is currently leading a delegation of senior Government officials for a series of high-level meetings in London with various stakeholders.
In fact, earlier this week, the Guyanese leader met with His Majesty King Charles III at Buckingham Palace to discuss ongoing collaborations in the areas of environmental protection, biodiversity, and climate action.
He, along with his team, subsequently engaged officials of The King’s Foundation to advance the partnership on urban renewal initiatives in Guyana.
Discussions were held on the Georgetown Restoration and Revitalisation Programme, as well as on the “Estate of Harmony” project in Moraikobai, Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice).
The King’s Foundation, in partnership with the Qatar Foundation’s Earthna Center, has been collaborating with the Guyana Government on a two-year project to advance sustainable urban development in Georgetown. The aim is to reimagine Georgetown as a resilient, sustainable, and inclusive modern “Garden City”.
According to outgoing British High Commissioner to Guyana, Jane Miller, who has wrapped up a four-year tenure in Guyana, King Charles is very passionate about Guyana and is keen on working with the country through the Foundation.
“President Ali and His Majesty, the King, have a good relationship. They’ve met on a number of occasions. And what I know is they both share the passion around biodiversity and nature,” the British diplomat told the Guyana Times during an interview on Wednesday.
She went on to add, “As you know, the King is a patron of Iwokrama; he’s been to Guyana, and he’s engaged with President Ali on a number of occasions. And they’ve been brainstorming all sorts of ideas of how the King and the King’s Foundation can have an impact in Guyana… But I know that the King is very keen to support Guyana; he feels very passionate about Guyana. Guyana’s got incredible rainforest; it’s got some incredible research going on. And so they want to be working together on that.”
President Ali’s engagements in London this week come on the heels of High Commissioner Miller announcing last week that the UK would be joining the Global Biodiversity Alliance – an initiative launched by the Guyanese leader last year to strengthen collective action in protecting the planet’s rich biodiversity and advancing sustainable development.
In a live broadcast following his meeting on Tuesday, President Ali noted that King Charles has recommitted his support to Guyana.
“He is not only an onlooker in what we’re doing, but he is an active participant and a promoter of the work Guyana is doing in terms of climate, environment, forestry and now biodiversity,” the President noted.
Very good engagement
The Head of State went on to add, “So, we had a very good engagement. King Charles has recommitted his support to Guyana and lauded the work that we’re doing, and we came up, of course, with the priorities in these areas that we will pursue, and I exchanged ideas of how best we can bring financing; we can look at a biodiversity model that is market-based… And importantly, one in which we can build an ecosystem around,” he outlined.
As Guyana positions itself as a major player in biodiversity and ecological services, President Ali said the Commonwealth has similarly reaffirmed its support for the country’s efforts.
On Tuesday, he also engaged with the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, and a key outcome from that engagement is an agreement to collaborate on strategic initiatives to support the Global Biodiversity Alliance. A Joint Working Team will advance efforts to establish an International Biodiversity Centre of Excellence based in Guyana.
According to the Guyanese leader, it is important “…to have that centre operationalised very quickly but integrated with other centres around the world. This is important in a world where we’ve already lost 60 per cent of our biodiversity.”
Meanwhile, the outgoing British diplomat told this newspaper on Wednesday that the Biodiversity Alliance is an exciting collaboration that will bring together the private sector, international organisations, countries, individuals, philanthropists, and more.
“[There will be] a whole range of people all passionate about ending biodiversity loss and reversing the changes that we’re seeing across the world and finding interesting ways and incentives that would enable that to happen, whether that be debt swaps or biodiversity bonds or biodiversity credits. And I think the beauty for me is that it’s an innovative group. It’s a group of people that are all individually passionate about this,” she posited.
Miller explained to this publication that the UK, in particular, is very passionate about this agenda and is hoping to share its vast expertise in advancing the work of the Alliance.
“We’ll just bring some other ideas to the table. We have experts within some of our Government departments in the UK that have been working for some time looking at biodiversity and looking at biodiversity loss around the world. It includes academic institutions as well as Government departments. So, bringing that expertise and bringing also financing mechanisms, understanding how different incentives can change people’s behaviour. So, I think it’s going to be a mixture of academics and policy people to really sort of add to the table, add to the conversation,” Miller stated.
Among the officials accompanying President Ali in these engagements are Local Government and Regional Development Minister Priya Manickchand and Presidential Advisor on Climate Change and Biodiversity Shyam Nokta; Advisor to the Office of the President Kevin Hogan and High Commissioner Raj Singh.
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