By Vishani Ragobeer
Though he said Guyana demonstrated global leadership on how natural resources can be sustainably harnessed more than a decade ago, Guyana’s President, Dr. Irfaan Ali says the nascent oil producer will continue to exploit its resources in ways much of the world does not yet believe is possible.
He promised, however, that Guyana’s developmental plan will be a model for global sustainable development.
The Head of State delivered the feature address at the second International Energy Conference and Expo Guyana, which got underway on Tuesday at the Marriott Hotel in Kingston, Georgetown.
During his frank address, President Ali said Guyana is not pursuing a self-righteous agenda.
But he mulled whether a “new world coalition” is needed to help developing countries confront the triple crises of climate change, food security, and energy security.
Cognisant of the challenges ahead, and the finances needed to surmount those, President Ali said Guyana is attempting to show the world how it can balance lucrative oil and gas production with its long-standing commitment to the environment.
How will that be done?
The President believes that Guyana’s development plan, known as the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), is the key to the country’s sustainable development, integrating efforts to boost economic growth, reduce poverty and empower communities.
“The LCDS is not an idea.
“The LCDS is a demonstration of a practical document and Guyana’s position is to make the LCDS a global model for sustainable development,” President Ali declared.
Through this strategy, Guyana is doing several things that will allow the country to earn money.
One of the novel ventures the country is pursuing is a forest payment scheme where countries or companies can pay Guyana for a kind of tradable permit known as carbon credits.
With this, the country is paid to keep its pristine forests intact, thereby continuously trapping harmful fossil fuels that contribute to the climate crisis.
Already, Hess Corporation, which is one of the co-venturers in the oil-producing Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, agreed to pay Guyana US$750M for saving the rainforest through a special carbon credits scheme.
And as part of this carbon credits scheme, a fixed 15 per cent of revenues earned will go to Guyana’s indigenous communities. President Ali said the first payment will be disbursed to Toshaos on Wednesday.
Through its development plan, Guyana also hopes to harness its new oil wealth to fund its transition to more environmentally-friendly sources of energy and overall, its development.
“What we have said is oil and gas is not the answer. It will give us much-needed revenue to catalyse the other sectors,” President Ali explained.
He reminded the gathering that the government is pursuing a Gas-to-Energy project that will see natural gas produced offshore brought to Wales on the West Bank of Demerara (WBD) to fire a power plant and a Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) plant.
This project is expected to slash energy costs in half in about two years’ time.
Because of the current plans, the government is pursuing, President Ali posited that Guyana is poised for substantial development.
He said, “When we speak about development and transformation and the positioning of Guyana, it is not guesswork.
“It calls for big thinking.”
But as he asked people to share his government’s vision, he reflected on the past. This, he said, will help people understand why there is an aggressive, fast-paced push for key projects.
“Many persons today who are shouting from on top of the mountains about ‘Oh, why go gas? What about the potential of hydro?’
“More than a decade ago, the then government, who is in office now, painstakingly got investors to come here for the investment of the Amaila Falls project and you know what they did? They killed a good project; an international investor walked away,” he lamented.
He added, “Today, that project would have been completed and the people would have been receiving electricity at half the cost. It would have happened a long time ago.”
That hydropower project has been revisited and is now part of an energy mix that will meet Guyana’s growing energy needs while keeping costs low and harmful emissions manageable.
