U.S.-owned Hess Corporation, a consortium partner in Guyana’s offshore oil sector, has agreed to buy $750 million worth of carbon credits from the South American nation in the next decade as it works to ensure Guyana’s almost intact Amazonian rainforests remain standing for decades to come, officials said yesterday [Macau time].
Guyanese government officials and executives from New York-based Hess signed off on the agreement late Friday under the United Nations Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation program (REDD).
This is the second major such deal the country has negotiated in the past decade. Back in 2009, Norway had signed off on a deal to provide $250 million in funding to help ensure the country’s 18 million hectares of forest will remain intact.
Government says it will pursue efforts to secure additional partners in the carbon credit market as the country works to ensure minimal harvesting of its forest resources in a country the size of Britain, or the U.S. state of Idaho, with less than 1 million inhabitants.
