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Apr 24, 2020 News
Along with the title of being the only country in the Latin America and Caribbean Region to see positive growth for 2020 thanks to the emerging oil sector, this industry is also poised to make Guyana one of the biggest greenhouse gas emitters of all time. This was recently noted by German Non Governmental Organization (NGO), Urgewald.
In one of its briefs on Guyana, the Human Rights Organization said that the oil field off the coast of Guyana is one of the largest crude discoveries of recent years. It noted that over 12 billion barrels of oil and 32 trillion cubic feet of natural gas could potentially be drilled by oil companies. If all were exploited and burnt, the NGO calculated that the resulting emission could get close to 860 million tons of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) from oil and 1.7 billion tons of CO2 from natural gas. Even if only half of the fossil reserves in the Stabroek block were burnt, the NGO said that the resulting emission would most likely still surpass one billion tons of CO2. Urgewald said that this scale of drilling would transform Guyana from a carbon sink with negative CO2-emissions – thanks to its dense rainforests – to a country with the highest per capita emissions in the world.
On top of the detrimental effect on the global climate, the NGO noted that a potential oil accident would cause severe damage to the entire Caribbean and its precious ecosystems. In this regard, it said that a major spill would also seriously damage the Caribbean eco-tourism sector, which is worth US$16 billion annually and creates 650,000 jobs. It was keen to remind that Exxon itself was responsible for one of the biggest oil spills in history – the Exxon Valdez in which 11 million gallons of crude oil devastated the pristine Alaskan coast in 1989.
But what alarms the NGO as well, is the role of the World Bank in helping Guyana increase its carbon footprint. The NGO noted that the financial institution is one of the major sponsors in Guyana’s oil industry while adding that it provided over US$50 million in public assistance.
On this front, Ute Koczy, who serves as the Finance Campaigner at Urgewald, commented that Guyana’s development aim has been to have 100% renewable energy by 2025. In light of this, the official finds it outrageous that the World Bank is now pushing Guyana to become one of the biggest greenhouse gas emitters of all time.
When the foregoing is carefully considered, Koczy said that Urgewald is calling on all shareholders of the World Bank to take a closer look at Guyana’s case. The official concluded, “This devastating public assistance to oil has to be stopped before it irretrievably damages Guyana, the Caribbean and the global climate system.”
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