Guyanese businesses urged to tap into climate finance opportunities
By Danielle Swain
danielle@newsroom.gy
Guyana’s climate strategy is no longer only a matter for government negotiators, environment experts and international development agencies. It is a business opportunity.
That was the central message from Pradeepa Bholanath, Guyana’s Senior Director for Climate Change and REDD+ at the Ministry of Natural Resources, during a virtual presentation to the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry on what the outcomes of COP30 mean for Guyana’s businesses.
Speaking to members of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce & Industry (GCCI), Bholanath said the private sector has a direct role to play in Guyana’s Low Carbon Development model and stands to benefit from new streams of climate finance, carbon markets, biodiversity finance and green investment.
“The private sector really has a key role,” she said, describing businesses as the implementers of many of the opportunities emerging from global climate negotiations. “The private sector in many ways is the implementer of what comes from these meetings.”
COP30 UNFCCC Round-Up: What It Means for Guyana’s Businesses by Pradeepa Bholanath Excerpt 1
For Guyanese businesses, climate policy is shaping access to finance, investment standards, tourism opportunities, construction practices, agriculture, energy security and the way companies position themselves in the global economy.
Bholanath told the chamber that Guyana’s forest conservation record has created a valuable national platform. With about 85 per cent forest cover and one of the lowest deforestation rates in the world, Guyana has earned revenue from forest carbon credits while continuing to pursue economic development.
To date, she said, Guyana has earned US$353 million from the sale of carbon credits into voluntary and compliance markets. Buyers have included Hess, now Chevron, Apple and 20 airlines participating in CORSIA, the international aviation emissions programme.
But Bholanath stressed that the private sector should not view carbon markets as something happening only at the national level. Local businesses help make those credits possible by building industries in ways that support sustainable development.
That includes ecotourism ventures, climate-smart agriculture, green construction, renewable energy, sustainable supply chains, technology services, insurance products and village-level enterprise development.
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“When a new ecotourism project is launched, rarely would we hear that this is part of the LCDS and helps to foster Guyana’s ability to create climate finance through the carbon markets,” she said. “But that is a fact.”
Her point was that businesses that reduce environmental impact, create green jobs, support Indigenous and rural livelihoods or help conserve forests are not operating outside the national climate agenda. They are helping Guyana prove that economic growth and forest protection can happen together.
That proof, in turn, strengthens the country’s ability to attract climate finance.
For the private sector, Bholanath outlined several areas of opportunity.
The first is access to finance. She said companies should continue to pursue financing through banks, international development institutions, private-sector partnerships, and multilateral agencies such as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Caribbean Development Bank.
She also pointed to the planned Guyana Development Bank, which she said could help align private sector financing with national development priorities.
“The Guyana Development Bank, I think, will be a game changer in this respect,” she said.
The second opportunity is ecotourism and nature-based business. Bholanath repeatedly used tourism as an example of how companies can generate income while supporting conservation. She pointed to village-level investments, ecolodges, Indigenous tourism experiences and local knowledge as areas where Guyana can expand its low-carbon economy.
She also cited Iwokrama as a model for how sustainable forestry, ecotourism and community partnerships can create business value while maintaining ecosystem services.
The third opportunity is green construction and engineering. Bholanath said construction is often seen as a “grey industry,” but Guyana has space to build a stronger model that blends infrastructure with environmental protection.
She pointed to mangroves along the coastline as an example of “green-grey solutions,” where natural systems and traditional infrastructure can work together. For engineering and construction firms, this opens opportunities in resilient infrastructure, coastal protection, drainage, renewable energy systems and climate-smart building design.
The fourth opportunity is agriculture and technology. Businesses can benefit by developing new crop varieties, expanding shade house programmes, investing in hydroponics, supporting climate-smart agriculture, transportation and creating technological solutions for emerging industries.
These areas, she suggested, are not separate from climate policy. They are part of the practical economy that climate finance is meant to support.
The fifth opportunity is Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting. Asked about ESG reporting, Bholanath said ESG should be seen as a company-level version of the Low Carbon Development Strategy.
“At the company level, that is ESG reporting. That is your LCDS,” she said.
She said ESG reporting can help businesses define what they stand for beyond profit, including how they treat employees, how they manage environmental risks, how they serve communities and how they prepare for future investment standards.
While ESG reporting is not mandatory for all businesses, she said companies that voluntarily develop clear plans and report on progress would be helping to usher in a “new era of responsible and responsive industry development.”
The sixth opportunity is direct participation in carbon markets. Bholanath said Guyana would welcome a local private sector first mover purchasing carbon credits, either as part of corporate social responsibility or another business programme.
She said local companies have already begun asking about the modalities for purchasing credits and suggested it would be significant if such a move happened under the leadership of the GCCI.
That, she said, would allow the private sector to close the loop, not only innovating and benefiting from the low-carbon economy, but reinvesting in the system that makes it possible.
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Bholanath also urged the GCCI and other business bodies to strengthen ties with regional and global private sector organisations. She said Guyana’s business community needs a stronger voice in global climate and finance discussions, especially as decisions are made about carbon markets, biodiversity finance and private sector support.
Without that connection, she warned, the priorities of smaller countries can be muted.
The presentation also looked beyond carbon to biodiversity finance, which Bholanath described as the next frontier for Guyana.
Through the Global Biodiversity Alliance, Guyana is seeking to build on its forest carbon model by placing greater value on biodiversity, ecosystem services, local knowledge and forest-based livelihoods.
For the private sector, that could mean future opportunities in biodiversity credits, conservation finance, nature-based tourism, sustainable supply chains and partnerships that link business growth to ecosystem protection.
Bholanath thanked the GCCI for being among the early members of the Global Biodiversity Alliance, saying its participation showed that the chamber recognises the link between global climate action, biodiversity and industry development.
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The challenge now, she suggested, is for Guyanese businesses to make that link more visible.
Several participants asked how businesses could see more direct benefits from climate finance. Bholanath acknowledged that government and the private sector both need to do more to show how investments in renewable energy, community development, construction, agriculture, education and village economies connect back to business opportunities.
That visibility, she said, should become part of the shared work ahead.
For Guyana’s private sector, the takeaway was that the low-carbon economy is not a narrow environmental agenda. It is a financing strategy, a branding opportunity, a route to new markets and a way to build companies that are more competitive in a changing world.
Government sets the policy, Bholanath said. Industry brings the innovation.
“The private sector is blazing the trail to show how those actions set out by policy could be best implemented in a way that benefits people,” she said.
The post Guyanese businesses urged to tap into climate finance opportunities appeared first on News Room Guyana.
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