The Guyana Business Journal (GBJ) & the Caribbean Policy Consortium (CPC) invite you to join an informative and insightful conversation Wednesday, July 13, 2022, at 10:30 am. The Webinar will be live-streamed on the Guyana Business Journal Youtube Channel. THE GUYANA BUSINESS JOURNAL & THE CARIBBEAN POLICY CONSORTIUM are dedicated to exploring and understanding the Guyanese and Caribbean economy’s key issues and developing concrete policy proposals to support the region’s socio-economic and political development.
In Episode II, scheduled for Wednesday, July 13, 2022, at 10:30 am, we address balancing the exploitation of oil and gas resources and protecting the environment. The essential question is this:
- The world must dramatically cut fossil fuel consumption to achieve its climate change goals. But climate change success may put developing countries rich in fossil fuels in an almost no-win situation.
- Suppose there is no progress in combating climate change. In that case, developing countries are likely disproportionately harmed by the floods, droughts, and other weather-related problems spawned by a warming planet.
- But if there are successful global actions to address climate change, poorer countries rich in fossil fuels will likely face a steep fall in the value of their coal, gas, and oil deposits. If the world permanently moves away from using fossil fuels, the likely result will be a considerable reduction in the value of their national and natural wealth.
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On June 08, 2022, the GBJ and the CPC, launched a series of Monthly Webinars entitled Transforming Guyana. The GBJ & CPC Transforming Guyana Webinars aims to (i) Bring together experts and prominent voices from Guyana, the diaspora, and around the world to discuss the impacts of Guyana’s oil and gas development; (ii) Offer a nuanced look at the opportunities and potential pitfalls ahead for Guyana; (iii) Explores strategies to maximize the positive impacts of the oil revenues on Guyana’s people and her future while mitigating the risks that other countries have faced; and (iv) Identify the most promising roles the Guyanese Diaspora can play in this transformation.
Guyana faces three particular challenges in this regard. First, we have a higher proportion of our national wealth at risk than wealthier countries and, on average more years of reserves than major oil and gas players. Second, we have a limited ability to diversify our economy and sources of government revenues—and it would take us longer to do so than countries less dependent on fossil fuel deposits. Lastly, economic, and political forces in Guyana create pressure to invest in industries, national companies, and projects based on fossil fuels—doubling down on the risk and exacerbating the ultimate consequences of a decline in demand for our natural resources.
To discuss Guyana’s strategy for exploiting her oil and gas resources and protecting the environment, we will be joined by Kemraj Parsram, Executive Director of Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); Dax Driver, President and CEO of The Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago; Loraine Sobers, Fulbright Scholar, and Lecturer at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine; and Neville Trotz, former Dean, Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Guyana and Director of the Institute of Applied Science and Technology at Turkeyen, Guyana, Science Adviser to the Commonwealth Secretary-General and Science Adviser to the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, based in Belmopan, Belize.
