Georgetown, October 18, 2018 – Stakeholders, government representatives and development partners today gathered to take Guyana one step closer to the finalization of their National Adaptation Plan (NAP).

This is the first NAP-related workshop in a series of workshops to be hosted by the UN Development Programme’s Japan-Caribbean Climate Change Partnership (UNDP J-CCCP) and the Government of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, through the Office of Climate Change. NAPs outline how countries can achieve medium to long-term adaptation to climate change and are designed to balance priorities across sectors at local, sub-national and national levels. Guyana’s NAP will be overarching, reforming a variety of sectors.

During today’s workshop more than thirty participants from various ministries, academia and civil society organisations (CSOs) reviewed the NAP process, provided insight into existing climate change initiatives and challenges and worked toward prioritization of adaptation actions. It is expected that these actions will build on Guyana’s Climate Resilience Strategy and Action Plan (CRSAP) to ensure alignment with Guyana’s Green State Development Strategy Framework as well as the existing United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) endorsed framework for NAPs.

The NAP process was created by the United Nations as an opportunity for countries to plan for sustainable development in the face of climate impacts The Paris Agreement calls on all countries to engage in NAP processes and Mikiko Tanaka, UNDP’s Resident Representative for Guyana, expressed her delight at UNDP being able to support the Government of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana in this process. She stated, “recognizing that National Adaptation Plans hold great value as countries are better positioned to adapt to climate change and attract investors and donors, UNDP is pleased to facilitate the development of Guyana’s NAP.”

J-CCCP is a regional initiative working in eight Caribbean countries to reduce dependence on fossil fuel imports, setting the region on a low-emission development path as well as to improve the region’s ability to respond to climate risks and opportunities in the long-run, through resilient development approaches that go beyond disaster response to extreme events.

For media queries, please contact:

In Guyana [Office of Climate Change]: Yasmin.Bowman.occ@motp.gov.gy or 592-623-9820

In Barbados [Project Management Unit]: penny.bowen@undp.org or 1 (246) 467-6007 or 836-6008

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