Guyana President Irfaan Ali whereas discussing Guyana’s lately discovered offshore oilfields had an argument with BBC’s Stephen Sackur, who hosts the interview programme HARDTalk, over local weather change.

Irfaan Ali didn’t approve when journalist Sackur questioned him relating to Guyana’s plans to drill oil from its lately found oil reserves. “Over the following decade or two, it’s anticipated that there will probably be 150 billion {dollars} price of oil and gasoline extracted off your coast. It’s a rare determine. But in sensible phrases, which means two billion tons of carbon emissions will come out of your seabed and be launched into the environment,” Sackur mentioned.

President Ali immediately interjected and said: “Let me stop you right there! Did you know that Guyana has a forest that is the size of England and Scotland combined, a forest that stores 19.5 gigatons of carbon, that we have kept alive”.

He then peppered Sackur with many counterpoints. Sackur tried to counter by asking if defending Guyana’s forests gave him the proper to launch carbon within the environment.

This visibly enraged Ali, who mentioned in response: “Does that provide the proper to lecture us on local weather change? I’m going to lecture you on local weather change. We have stored this forest alive that you simply take pleasure in that the world enjoys, that you simply don’t pay us for, that you simply don’t worth. Guess what? We have the bottom deforestation charge on this planet! Guess what? Even with the best exploration of oil and gasoline we are going to nonetheless be web zero”.

“This is the hypocrisy that exists in the world. The world in the last 50 years has lost 65 percent of its biodiversity. We have kept ours,” he additional added.

The enraged Guyanese President then requested Sackur if he was “within the pockets of those that destroy the surroundings via the Industrial Revolution”.

The back and forth between the BBC journalist and the Guyanese President also reminds one of debates surrounding the issue of carbon imperialism. Carbon imperialism is a term used by developing economies who feel the West and Global North forces their views on environmental protection by lecturing them on carbon emissions while ignoring that in a carbon-based economy developed nations will have to depend on carbon for their growth.

ExxonMobil and other oil companies discovered oil in commercial quantities in the Essequibo region, Guyana-Suriname basin and off the coast of Guyana over the past few years.

Guyana boasts reserves of about 11 billion barrels and that means Guyana’s per capita growth could increase because of these oil fields which could transform the nation into a developed country as huge amounts of oil and gas under its coastal waters puts the nation in the top 20 on par with countries like Norway, Brazil and Algeria.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Guyana is also South America’s fastest growing economy, and has grown by 62% last year. The IMF also predicted that domestic product per head will top $60,000. It was $11,000 when the oil deposits were first discovered in 2015.