Guyana

Guyana is an upper to middle income country in South America endowed with natural resources, fertile agricultural land and extensive forests that cover most of its territory. Notably, Guyana’s oil and gas resources are rated among the highest in the world. Between 2022 and 2024, Guyana recorded the world’s highest real GDP growth rate, averaging 47 percent. This offers the potential for rapid industrial development and increased state revenues but comes with environmental, governance, and economic risks. The country is prone to climate change effects, particularly floods and droughts, and its resource-based economy, with agriculture and mining as key economic sectors, remains highly exposed to fluctuations in global commodity prices.

Against this background, the Government of Guyana has recognized the importance of taking measures to combat environmental degradation, preserve forest cover and support sustainable development, by committing to low impact, climate resilient development. The development of Guyana’s Green State Development Strategy: Vision 2040 (GSDS) set out the country’s long-term vision for economic and sociocultural transformation, aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and its Nationally Determined Contributions. In 2020, the government that took over confirmed its priorities until 2025 in line with the country’s Low Carbon Development Strategy but abandoned plans for GSDS.

Guatemala’s green economic transformation has been advanced through strong collaboration across national counterparts, including the Ministry of Public Finance, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, the Ministry of Economy, the President’s Secretariat of Planning and Programming, and the Ministry of Labour.