Pres Ali defends Guyana’s oil production in face of climate questions
President Irfaan Ali has defended Guyana’s decision to pursue oil production, telling a New York Times reporter that the context for his country is “quite different” from that of industrial nations or Middle Eastern states.
During a recent exchange, the reporter put to Ali what many critics see as the core dilemma for Guyana: that the nation is funding its climate adaptation plans with revenues from the very fossil fuels driving global warming.
“You talk about how, for Guyana, the answer to coping with a hotter world is in fact being funded by the production of more fuels that are causing that warming. That of course is sort of the conundrum in a nutshell, right?” the reporter asked.
Ali, however, pushed back.
“I don’t see it as a problem. Your question in the context of Guyana is quite different from your question in the Middle East, or your question in one of the industrial countries. For us, it’s quite different,” the President said.
Pressed further on what he sees as a way out of the climate dilemma, Ali pointed to Guyana’s standing forests.
“We have this standing forest that has been there for all our lives, which the world does not see a value in. It’s easy. If the world says, ‘We’re going to pay a fair-market rate for the forests that have ecological and biodiversity sources that also have a price,’ then it will allow countries like ours that are forested to then use the revenue from that to protect our land, to invest in health, to invest in education, human development and infrastructure, to remain competitive and to build a strong and resilient economy,” Ali explained.
He further argued that the real moral issue lies in determining who can supply the world’s energy needs with the least environmental harm.
“So the moral question is: Who can produce what the world needs in the least environmentally damaging way?” he asked.
