Conservation International Guyana pulls out from US$10M Exxon funding

Aug 08, 2021 News

– Move reportedly over concerns about oil companies’ poor environmental practices

Kaieteur News has learnt that Conservation International Guyana (CI-Guyana) has recently pulled out from a US $10 million funding from oil giant, ExxonMobil, due to the companies’ poor environmental practices.

Throwback to the signing of the Agreement between Exxon and Conservation International-Guyana in 2018.
From left to right: Head of the ExxonMobil Foundation, Kevin Murphy; Communications Representative of CI-Guyana, Sara Bharrat; Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Ivelaw Griffith; President of Conservation International, Jennifer Morris; Vice President of CI-Guyana, David Singh and Technical Director of CI-Guyana, Curtis Bernard.

ExxonMobil Foundation, in July 2018, had stated that they will contribute US$10 million to a new collaboration with CI-Guyana and the University of Guyana (UG) to train Guyanese for sustainable job opportunities and to expand community-supported conservation.
According to ExxonMobil Guyana, the investment was intended to support Guyana’s Green State Development Plan which was labelled as the country’s 15-year development plan that aimed to diversify Guyana’s economy and balance economic growth with the sustainable management and conservation of the country’s ecosystems. Exxon was to provide the funding over a five-year period.
The initial grant money was to fund a feasibility study driven by Conservational International (CI), through its affiliate, CI-Guyana, to further define the details of the programme. Once defined, Conservation International Guyana and the University of Guyana would deliver the education, training, research and retention programmes that would help ensure that economic growth reinforces Guyana’s environmental development goals.
After the initiative was launched on August 20, 2018, CI-Guyana had come in for flak for entering this partnership with the ExxonMobil Foundation due to the contrast of the two companies; with CI-Guyana being a carbon-reducing, conservation organisation while ExxonMobil is a carbon releaser that has been accused of denying the impact of fossil fuels on climate change.
Contacted last night, Executive Director at CI-Guyana, Curtis Bernard, would only confirm via e-mail that, “CI and the ExxonMobil Foundation terminated the grant agreement that was signed in 2018 which was indeed intended to fund conservation and sustainable development initiatives.” However, a source with knowledge of the pull out stated that it was due to the oil giant’s poor environmental record.
Exxon has been under increasing pressure recently with regard to the company’s environmental practices. As of Friday, according to online media outlet, Bloomberg Green, ExxonMobil was suspended from the Climate Leadership Council (CLC), a pro-carbon tax group backed by conservation groups and some of the world’s biggest corporations, including CI.
The move comes just weeks after an Exxon lobbyist was secretly recorded by Greenpeace saying that the oil giant only voiced support for a carbon tax because it knew such a policy would be almost impossible to implement.
“After careful consideration, we have decided to suspend ExxonMobil’s membership in both the Council and the Americans for Carbon Dividends, our advocacy arm,” CLC Chief Executive Officer, Greg Bertelsen, said in a statement.
Exxon’s CEO, Darren Woods, reportedly apologised for the lobbyist’s comments at the end of June, saying that the comments in no way represent the company’s position and reiterated support for a carbon tax. The oil explorer already was under intense investor pressure to bolster emission-reduction efforts after an activist investor won a key boardroom battle that replaced a quarter of the directors.
Exxon had stated that the CLC’s decision is disappointing and counterproductive and that it will in no way deter their efforts to advance carbon pricing, of which they believe is a critical policy requirement to tackle climate change.

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