Guyana’s oil industry will not increase its carbon footprint

Oct 13, 2019 News

By Kemol King

The impact of Guyana’s imminent status as an oil producer on the global environment and, by extension, the climate crisis, is a conversation that lurks on the outskirts of every discussion about production. That’s because, as far as certain officials are concerned, the operations will not leave a footprint here.

Environmentalist, Melinda Janki

Activist, Ramon Gaskin

Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, and Foreign Secretary, Carl Greenidge, were both asked about their thoughts on the impact of oil production on climate and they both said that they are not worried because Guyana’s carbon footprint will not be impacted.
That’s for sure, because Guyana will not be using the oil it produces here, but selling it to the international community.
It was an environmentalist, Melinda Janki, who had raised the matter of the environmental impact of oil production on the environment. Even if there isn’t a spill, Janki had said that the threat to the environment is catastrophic.
It should be noted that ExxonMobil will start producing oil from its Liza I project on the Stabroek Block in a matter of months, starting out at about 120,000 barrels per day.
In making a case for her stance on Petroleum operations, Janki brought to the attention of this publication, a global fossil fuel divestment movement, seeking to strip away the wealth from oil companies. Campaigners have been calling on investors and businesses to withhold investments from and to sever their connections to the fossil fuel industry.
A joint report from 350.org and Divest Invest has found that that movement has reached US$11 trillion, noting that more than 1,000 companies have made commitments worldwide.
The fossil fuel divestment movement kicked up in 2011, and its implications, for a budding oil-producer like Guyana, are important to consider. This country has, even recently, felt the effect of the imminent climate crisis, when the high tides flooded communities all across the coast.
Its Caribbean sister-nations in the Caribbean have been devastated by the hurricanes worsened by the rapid warming of the earth.
Janki had made a compelling case for her position that, maybe, the oil should be left in the ground. But another activist, Ramon Gaskin, disagrees with her position.
During a special segment of Guyana’s Oil & You last Monday, Gaskin said he understands Janki’s position as an environmentalist, but that his difference of opinion had an equally different perspective.
“I think the planet should be saved but I don’t think Guyana could save the planet. We’re too small to save the planet, to begin with.”
He also said that the climate crisis wasn’t created by Guyana; but by bigger, developed nations. According to the World Economic Forum, the Industrial Revolution started in the mid-1700s, driven by fossil fuels. The UK had pioneered the beginning of that, but then the United States and major European powers followed suit.
For almost 200 years, the US was responsible for an overwhelming proportion of those emissions. It was only until half a century ago that China, India and Russia started to produce significant emissions as well. In the early 2000s, China overtook the US in carbon emissions.
In 2017, those four countries – all with Petroleum reserves – were responsible for over 50 percent of all carbon emissions globally. According to the UN data, greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 would need to be 55 percent lower than current levels to keep the global temperature increase within the 1.5°C goal set by the Paris Climate Agreement.
Those countries have significant sway in how successful that climate pact is.
Gaskin said that, while Guyana tries to save the world by leaving its oil in the ground (in the unlikely event that it does), “the big, developed countries… they’ll continue to destroy the planet.”
“So, to come now to Guyana who, for the first time, has an opportunity to make some money out of this thing that is our resource – to say we must save the planet and leave it alone – it doesn’t make sense to me.” Gaskin told Kaieteur Radio.

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