UNDP Officer-in-Charge Carlos del Castillo presents a copy of the report to Dr. Ashni Singh

The UNDP says the significant progress Guyana has made over the last two decades could be reversed if there is a failure to implement decisive action to counter climate change at the global level.

The remark was made at the launch of the UNDP Human Development Report 2011 in Georgetown on Thursday.

The theme for this year’s report is “Sustainability and Equity,” which dovetails with the government’s efforts and representations on climate mitigation.

“In line with the global trend Guyana has also achieved significant progress during the past two decades yet this progress could be halted, or worse, reversed unless bold steps are not taken to slow climate change, prevent further environment damage and reduce inequality among nations,” UNDP Deputy Resident Representative Chisa Mikami said.   

Expanding choices for current and future generations, she added, requires aggressive action on equity and sustainability and the HDR 2011 sets out how this could be done.

Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh was on hand for the event said he was pleased with the theme of the report and that the government has always found it and other UN information useful. He added report also provides an important snapshot of the state of affairs and makes an important call.

“The nexus between sustainability and equity is in fact an extremely important one, not only from a domestic standpoint but also from a global standpoint,” Dr. Singh stated.

He added that there had been the view in the past that accelerated development in some parts of the world had no implications on other areas and this has been particularly illustrated in the sphere of the environment.

According to the minister, “the oneness of the world” is something the Caribbean countries are intimately familiar with since they are arguably the smallest contributors to global environmental degradation but yet face the “most existential threat” by rising sea levels.  

“Any policy anywhere in the world that ignores this oneness of the world, that ignores implications for others is by definition not sustainable and I think the world today is waking up to this reality,” Dr. Singh said.

Guyana has climbed two places to 117 out of 187 countries on the Human Development Index contained in the HDR 2011 and has been listed in the group of countries with medium human development.