BALI, Indonesia (CMC) — Guyana’s Attorney General Anil Nandlall Wednesday called for immediate and drastic action to avoid “an infernal global disaster”, warning that “indifference and inaction equal nothing short of destruction” as the world deals with the impact of climate change.

Addressing the 144th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Nandlall said that “climate change affects us all, rich, poor, developed and developing states”.

“But its effects are more severe on the poorest and most vulnerable, especially Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and low-lying coastal states. For us, it is a question of survival,” Nandlall said reiterating that immediate action is needed on three fronts to deal with the issue of climate change.

Nandlall said all countries must first set more ambitious goals to reduce emissions, “and we must honour, to the letter, those ambitions,” adding that all countries have an obligation to act, but the world’s foremost polluters have a greater duty to institute steeper emission cuts.

He said secondly, the pledge of US$100 billion per annum, made one decade ago, to support climate action must be met as “dishonoured pledges are recipe for disaster”.

Thirdly, the Attorney General said because forests constitute a powerful arsenal in the fight against climate change, forest-rich countries like Guyana must be provided with the incentives necessary to keep their forests intact and reduce deforestation and forest degradation.

“Mindful that deforestation contributes 16 per cent to annual global emissions and in recognition of the ecosystem and climate services provided by forests, it is imperative that we finalise the rules for carbon markets and REDD+ so as to properly value tropical forests and the climate services which they provide.”

Nandlall said that Guyana, by far, remains a net carbon sink by a significant margin where the 18 million hectares of largely intact forests in Guyana sequesters approximately 154m tons of CO2 annually.

He added that the forest provides this important ecosystem function as one of nine countries of the Amazon; Guyana also has some of the highest forest covers on the earth along with one of the lowest deforestation rates.

The Attorney General told the conference that Guyana is also part of the Guiana Shield which stores about a fifth of the world’s fresh water and about 18 per cent of the world’s tropical carbon. It also has extremely high levels of biodiversity and endemism, with about four per cent of all known animal species and even more bird species.

“Therefore, Guyana is already playing its part in addressing and will continue to do so. We will maintain our forests — almost the size of England and Scotland combined, storing 20 gigatons of carbon — a global asset.

“We will work with local communities in conserving, protecting and sustainably managing our forests, biodiversity and freshwater supplies. We will decouple economic growth and emissions through a progressively cleaner energy mix with the aim of reducing our carbon emissions by 70 per cent by the year 2030.

“We will invest in low carbon opportunities for jobs, ecosystem services and social inclusion through an expanded Low Carbon Development Strategy,” Nandlall said, noting that the government and the Parliament will continue to aggressively enact laws and regulations, promulgate and implement policies on climate change and promote low carbon development in every area of national life.

“The time for talk is over. The time for action is now. It is but a question of survival. Act now or continue on the road to definite perdition,” Nandlall told the conference that is being attended by legislators from around the world.