Pres. Ali defends oil rush despite Int’l calls to end fossil fuel exploitation

Aug 20, 2021 News

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By Kiana Wilburg

Kaieteur News – If nations fail to take immediate action to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the International Energy Agency and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have warned that there would be a catastrophic rise in annual floods, droughts, wildfires, tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes and other natural disasters.
It is for this reason that both global bodies increased their calls in recent times for there to be no new fossil fuel exploitation and development activities. While some countries have pledged to do this to some degree, it appears that Guyana would not be doing it at all.

According to President, Irfaan Ali, Guyana is not only unmatched when it comes to its environmental record, but is not a contributor to the climate crisis that faces the world today. In Ali’s eyes, his government has given a commitment to ensure the prosperity of all Guyanese through the sustainable development of the nation’s God-given resources, and this is what he intends to do.
The President made this position known during a joint press conference that was held yesterday at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre (ACCC) alongside the Head of State of Suriname, Chandrikapersad Santokhi. There, Kaieteur News reminded Ali and Santokhi that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently released the first part of its report that stems from an ongoing assessment on the effects of human activity on climate change.
Following the release of the document, United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, said there must be a swift shift to renewable energy. Guterres said his word of caution against further oil and gas development must be heeded since the internationally agreed threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius is “perilously close.” He had said, “We are at imminent risk of hitting 1.5 degrees in the near term. The only way to prevent exceeding this threshold is by urgently stepping up our efforts, and pursuing the most ambitious path…We are already at 1.2 degrees and rising.”
United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres had said too that the report sounds a death kneel for the fossil fuel industry and a code red for humanity. It was in this vein that Kaieteur News asked both presidents if they are framing their fossil fuel industries with the findings of this report in mind.
In response, President Ali said, “You and I know there is a gap as to when the (climate change) targets can be realised. We also know that there were many targets, which were set for Climate Change, and…there was also money that the developed world had set aside for climate change and we are still waiting for it. There is now a new pledge for new money.”
“So there are issues with climate change which are global but our credentials on the environment outmatch anyone. We can say that in a net way, we are a positive story on the environment side.”
With the foregoing perspective in mind, Ali said Guyana has made several discoveries offshore, which if monetised, can be critical in realising the economic transformation of the country. He said the oil money can be used to create the fiscal space that is needed to ensure the country’s food programme can develop in a competitive way to meet regional and international demands. He also noted that the revenues can be used to enhance the country’s tourism image as well as improve services across sectors.
On this premise, Ali said his government has a clear-cut development agenda while adding that it has respect for international targets and best practices on the environment. He stressed however that Guyana is not a contributor to the climate disaster the country and its regional counterparts are made to face. He pointed out as well that there are no mechanisms for countries such as Guyana and those in the Caribbean to tap into so as to mitigate the effects of climate change.

ABOUT IPCC & ITS REPORT
The IPCC was created in 1988 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) to provide policymakers with regular scientific assessments on climate change, its implications and potential future risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation options.
Through its assessments, the IPCC determines the state of knowledge on climate change. It identifies where there is agreement in the scientific community on topics related to climate change, and where further research is needed. The reports are drafted and reviewed in several stages, thus guaranteeing objectivity and transparency.
The IPCC is now in its sixth assessment cycle. The first report from this process is called Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. It was released this week. The report addresses the most up-to-date physical understanding of the climate system and climate change, bringing together the latest advances in climate science, and combining multiple lines of evidence from paleoclimate, observations, process understanding, and global and regional climate simulations. A total of 234 scientists from 66 countries are behind the first chapter of the IPCC’s sixth assessment report. In addition, over 14,000 scientific papers are referenced in the report.

Some of the key findings of the report are as follows:
• Keeping to 1.5 Degrees Celsius will require “immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions” in emissions while slower action leads to a temperature of 2 Degrees Celsius and more suffering for all life on Earth.
• Drought is increasing in more than 90 percent of regions across the world.
• The past five years have been the hottest on record since 1850.
• The recent rate of sea-level rise has nearly tripled compared with 1901-1971.
• Extreme sea-level events that occurred once a century are projected to occur at least annually.
• Under all the emissions scenarios considered, all targets for reductions will be broken this century unless huge cuts in carbon emissions take place.
• 2,400 billion tonnes of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) have been emitted by humanity since 1850. The world can afford to only leak another 400 billion tonnes to have a 66 percent chance of keeping to 1.5 Degrees Celsius.
• Many changes due to past and future greenhouse gas emissions are irreversible for centuries to millennia, especially changes in the ocean, ice sheets and global sea level.
• Under scenarios with increasing CO2 emissions, the ocean and land carbon sinks are projected to be less effective at slowing the accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere.

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