In what will be seen as a stirring defence of Guyana’s utilisation of its oil and gas resources, President Irfaan Ali yesterday argued that climate issues cannot be addressed unless the fundamental needs of people are taken care of.
Speaking at the National Park after the World Environment Day `Green Walk’, Ali said that every global citizen is affected by the climate problem but other realities also had to be considered.
“And this is not to send chills down anyone’s spine, or this is not to create unintended controversy; this is just dealing with the reality. But the fact is we cannot address climate issues unless we address the fundamental needs and wants of human beings.
“We cannot even speak about climate change if we have people who are hungry, people who don’t have access to water, people who have access to wages and earnings. Then they have no other alternative but to seek out every possible way to survive”, he declared in the presence of UN Resident Coordinator Yeşim Oruç and others who participated in the walk.
Adverting to UNICEF figures to point at the global inequality in access to basic services, Ali said from 2014 to now, undernourishment has been continuously increasing to about one billion people today.
“We cannot have one world and one Planet where more than half the people are without water, without food, without food security. We cannot have One World and One Planet if we have such great inequality that exists in our world. We cannot have One World and One Planet when more than 68% of our population is projected to live in urban centres. The stress that would put on small land areas would be enormous and just not sustainable…” he argued.
He said this is why the developing world has been consistently calling on the developed world to stay true to the pledges they made.
“We are far away from the minimal US$100 billion pledge that the developed world would have made to fight climate change, adaptation and mitigation measures.
“If you look at adaptation alone, just for adaptation measures in the developing economies, it will cost between US$140b to US$300b annually if we are to successfully meet adaptation costs alone by 2030”, the President contended.
He said that this is the reality of rising sea levels and with changes in climatic conditions that Guyana is faced with.
“This is the cost, this is the investment that is required. That is why developing countries like Guyana must take a balanced approach; we must explore every possible revenue-generating activity so that we can have the resources necessary for adaptation and mitigation. But we must do so in a sustainable way”, the President said in a clear reference to the country’s oil and gas resources.
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has taken a strong line against fossil fuel exploitation in light of the climate change exigencies.
Ali pointed to other glaring inequalities which have cropped up.
“A One World is not a world in which one section of the global population must have priority access to vaccines in the time of a pandemic. That cannot be the construct of a One World, and I want us in Guyana to raise our voices in unison and say, this must not be the One World that you want to go after. And this is the reality. We have to stop skirting around issues globally, and we have to deal with things in a realistic way, in a fair way. We cannot have One World with the type of inequality that exists in the trade system. And it all comes back to climate, climate change, adaptation, and mitigation.
“Because if you look at some countries that have high deforestation rate, it has high deforestation rate because people were going after economic opportunities,
livelihood opportunities, they were going after opportunities to keep food on the table for their children and their community. Whilst it is unsustainable, we cannot escape this reality”, he stated.
He posited that Guyana has been able to keep close to 90% of its forests intact but asked “what is the world paying us for that? What is the word paying us for the more than 90% of forest that is intact?”
He took a swipe at “newspapers” on two occasions.
“Forests cover 31% of our global land area and it is more biodiverse than any other. This is a reality. You live in a country with almost 90% forest cover, contributing the greatest biodiversity to the world. 19.5 gigatons of carbon we store but is this the headline in the newspapers? Is this the headline that we as Guyanese promote for our country? Or do we lose this reality and lose this reality of our contribution? We have already made it very clear that we cannot be blamed or we cannot be subjected to under-development because of what took place by a few countries. We have a fundamental right to equitable development. By exercising that fundamental right we are saying to the world, we will do it in a different way; in a sustainable way; in a way in which we secure the environment; in a way in which we keep that forest cover; in a way in which we continue to contribute to the global fight against climate change”, Ali said.
The President also referenced the likely cost to the country from the threat of rising sea levels.
“By the 21st century, the sea level is expected to rise between 10 to 21 1/2 inches. That is the level of sea rise. We have 425 kilometres of coastline that we must protect in this country. Who is going to pay for it? Where is the money going to come from to protect this more than 425 kilometres of coastline that we have to protect to save lives, to save crops, to ensure we are food secure, to save livelihoods? It is us, it is Guyana; we will have to find more than $1 billion in adaptation just to meet this one singular need. Where will the revenue come from? It will not come from the headlines of newspapers. The revenue cannot come from there. It has to come from real work in the economy from the productive sector. That is where it must come from. Because so far, what you’re seeing in the world is an unwillingness to pay the true costs of the damage that was created. Thirty five per cent of this coastline is what is considered hard dam or earthen dam; 35%, we still have to address that. I asked all the specialists who speak every day to tell us, how do we address this, if we do not address our revenue needs and don’t pursue aggressively the forms of revenue that must come”, Ali stated.
He pointed out that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects that to keep the temperature rise at two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels a carbon price of US$75 per tonne is necessary.
“That is not President Ali saying this that is the IMF’s figures. To keep the temperature at not 1.5 at 2 degrees Celsius you need to have carbon price to be at US$75 a tonne. Carbon price today, as I speak to you is between US$3 to US$6 US per tonne. Let’s stop gaffing globally. This is the reality that the world’s people are faced with. Let us stop standing in big conference rooms and conference centres and address the real issues; issues of survival if we are really to pursue the One Planet and ensure that we do so in a sustainable manner”, the President declared.
Ali also delved into the cost for transformation to green energies and the realities that accompany it.
“You can preach all day to the developing world, go solar, go wind, go clean hydrogen. What are the capital costs? Who owns the technologies? Suddenly the man who developed oil and gas and built his economy is now the owner of the technology for solar and wind and the developing world is told now, to pursue this path. Yes, we must because it is good for the Planet. It is healthy for the Planet. But let’s be realistic, at the current capital costs, how many developing countries can afford this transition? And who is paying for the transition? These are questions that cannot be left unanswered”, he warned.
He argued that these questions that must be answered in the policy formulation and policy mix that is to be pursued.
“I’m saying to my friend from the UN, I’m saying that we must, but who is going to pay? We can’t even raise the minimal US$100 billion we committed to years ago. So I say to my friend, the UN Secretary-General (Guterres), we welcome your advocacy and your strength on issues of the environment but you must balance that with these realities. You must balance that with these realities and not only continuously hear leaders identifying the problems; go into the solutions and call out those who need to be part of the solution and are not picking up the slack, or taking the responsibility. That is what leadership is about. We must be willing to call people out. This is the reality of the world we live in”, Ali stated.
He said that he was speaking not only as President of Guyana but as a global leader.
Oruç in a message in Saturday’s Stabroek News to mark World Environment Day said: “…Guyana’s commitment to adopting carbon development model, described in the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS 2030), is now more important than ever. Specifically, Guyana’s ambitions on energy are crucial. If LCDS targets are achieved, it would see the country meet a tenfold increase in demand for electricity supply by 2040 whilst retaining greenhouse gas emissions at 2018 levels. This would be an extraordinary example of how economic growth can be decoupled from carbon emissions”.
