Economic development must not trump environmental safety – UG Professor tells Energy Conference 

Feb 19, 2023 News

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By Davina Bagot

Kaieteur News – Guyana on Friday wrapped up its four-day International Energy Conference and Expo, held this year under the theme ‘Harnessing Energy for Development’.

The country in 2015 discovered sweet crude in commercial quantities and swiftly moved to production by 2019, half the time that such activities usually take to commence.

As Guyana races to produce its oil and gas resources however, it has been cautioned on multiple occasions to beware of environmental impacts that can result from such operations.

Most recently, Dr. Paulette Bynoe, Deputy Dean of Graduate Studies, University of Guyana (UG) offered her advice on the importance of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) during a panel discussion on day two of the Energy Conference (Wednesday).

She zoomed into the theme of this year’s event during her remarks seeking to underscore the point that “we are harnessing something that the environment offers”.

“Energy is nature’s endowment to us for development and energy security is critical- it’s a Sustainable Development Goal- but in the process of harnessing the energy, there are issues and so just to reiterate or justify the ESG that we are talking about, we have to put before the development, sustainable,” she urged.

Dr. Bynoe explained that she once completed a report in South Korea titled ‘Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and the Private Sector- an Uneasy Alliance. This study, done some 20 years ago, may not be applicable anymore as she implied that the private sector is now leaning on EIAs to implement measures to protect the biophysical environment.

At the same time, however, Dr. Bynoe believes that the impacts on human life must also be considered “because people are critical in the environment”.

The UG Professor reasoned, “Once we understand how critical it is for us to pursue ESG and don’t think of it as an impediment, it doesn’t slow up economic progress because the pillar, the foundation of the economic process is the environment because it is from the environment ladies and gentlemen that we get all the inputs from any economic activity.”

She was also keen to point out, “When we undermine the components of the environment in an indirect way long-term we are undermining the very process of development.”

Dr. Bynoe explained that the environment provides all of the inputs for development but while economic development is key to the overall development of a country, this objective must not trump safety.

“Economic development is a necessity for development…but it is not sufficient and that is why we have to think about impacts- biological, chemical, physical and social and if we are going to address those in an effective and efficient manner we have to talk about governance because it is governance that’s the root cause,” she outlined.

The environmental safety of ExxonMobil’s operations in the prolific Stabroek Block has always been a contention for activists and even politicians who worry that these activities, coupled with scant oversight, regulations and monitoring from the regulatory agencies can result in grave tragedy for the country.

For instance, a good number of Guyanese citizens- inclusive of activists, politicians and those trying to make a livelihood- believe that ExxonMobil has caused the fishing industry to simply dry up, as statistics show dwindling numbers.

But while the operator in its EIAs submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continuously warns that this sector could be impacted by reduced water quality among others, the government is adamant that the reduction in fish catch is to be blamed on climate change. In fact, it even said this claim was supported by an independent study conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) last year.

Environmentalist, Simone Mangal-Joly had challenged the Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha to release the study conducted and while a commitment to do so was given, the document was never made public.

On the other hand, the political Opposition is fearful that a new clause inserted to the Environmental Permits granted to Exxon can allow unlimited flaring of natural gas.

The EPA had installed a new clause that allows Exxon to flare as much gas as it needs to, as long as a fine of US$50 per tonne was paid. According to Shadow Natural Resources Minister, David Patterson this fee does nothing to prevent future generations from being exposed to untold danger.

Just last month it was reported that ExxonMobil paid US$9 million last year to the EPA to flare excess gas at its offshore operations in the Stabroek Block. It can therefore be determined that the oil giant made payments on approximately 180,000 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide equivalent (CO2e) flared last year.

Flaring, as the word suggests, is the process of burning associated gas that is brought up during oil production. Notably, this process emits harmful gases into the atmosphere that can, not only affect seabirds and marine creatures, but also climate change.

Former Head of the EPA, Dr. Vincent Adams had warned that over 200 pollutants are released in the process of flaring.

He said, “When it goes up, it has to come down, so besides Global warming and climate change and all of that type of stuff, it has things like nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide, and when those mix with the moisture from the atmosphere it forms an acid, and so that is called acid rain.”

He was keen to note that when the acidic water falls, it enters the ocean and affects fish, farming and the entire ecology.

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• Development, EIA, energy, ENVIRONMENT, safety

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