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The University of Guyana and the British High Commission ended their lecture series on Climate Change, Wednesday,Joe Mullen Jersey, with a panel discussion centered on the theme Climate Change – Challenges and Opportunities.The panel featured a cross section of speakers who contributed opinions from scientific, civil and economic perspectives and then answered questions from the audience.Present were students and faculty members of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences,Brent Seabrook Jersey, UG, representatives from various Government Ministries and agencies such as the Guyana Forestry Commission and a number of other tertiary institutions.From the economic perspective, Member of Parliament, Winston Murray,Brandon Saad Team North America Jersey, queried whether the world was prepared to pay a price for Guyana to save its forests.According to Murray, jobs in the mining, forestry and agriculture sectors would be lost,Ales Hemsky Jersey, lives would be disrupted and members of a number of Amerindian settlements would be forced to curtail some of the activities that play an integral part in maintaining their livelihoods.He noted that there are significant funds to be received from the practices of mining and forestry and Guyana as a developing country simply cannot afford to ignore these resources. Maintaining the forests is a means of combating negative climate change but as a country with a very small carbon footprint as compared to others, the major contributors to the problem – large industrialised nations — should therefore supply the funding necessary to offset economic losses which is the basic premise behind many of the major carbon credit programmes that exchange funds for the maintenance of carbon sequestering resources.According to Murray, if the country is successful in receiving this funding there are also issues with the existing framework for disbursement of these monies.He said that the current arrangement of agencies does not allow for the funds received to be deposited in the Consolidated Fund thereby incurring the need for parliamentary approval before spending.Certain agencies such as the EPA, GGMC and the Office of the President need a rearrangement of policy and procedures to allow for better handling of these resources.He added that there is a need for both equity and probity in the matter—equity,Duncan Keith Jersey, because the forests are the joint heritage of every single citizen of this country and probity since there must be accountability in the use of these resources.Murray then went on to point out that if these resources are handed down to the country from the international funds and organisations then it needs to be deposited to the Consolidated Fund and subject to Parliamentary approval before disbursement.Also on the Panel was Major General (Ret) Joe Singh, addressing the issue from the perspective of civil society. He noted in his presentation that the scope and intensity of the problem as well as its far reaching consequences required that action needs to be taken by Government,Scott Hartnell Jersey, Business and Civil Society at all levels.Singh noted that there is no question of information of climate change being readily available, however, there is a real need for it to be made mainstream by the powers that be. It needs to be broken down and disseminated to the grass roots level, the Major General (ret’d) said.Civil society has a part to play in bringing this information to the people because involvement is necessary at all levels to allow for better partnerships and implementation of policies and practices.He also pointed out that there needs to be more participatory and representative democracy in this country, particularly at the neighbourhood level. However,Scott Gomez Jersey, he did not fail to turn the other side of the coin when he said that the society is not quite civil and it may be construed from the proliferation of reckless and irresponsible behaviour, dangerous driving,Antoine Roussel Jersey, littering and abuses of one kind or the other.Some civil society organisations tend to focus on single issues and carry agendas filtered through that issue – as such, he posited they needed to be more comprehensive in their concerns and less divisive in their behaviour towards each other.Civil organisations, he said, in an attempt to become catalysts for action relating to the issues facing society must first put their own houses in order,Colton Parayko Jersey, and approach the matters in a cohesive manner so that their joint efforts may produce the desired results and bring about the required changes.