Environment

Environmental and human rights activist, Guyanese Janet Bulkan on Tuesday asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to order the halt of oil and gas exploration because fossil fuels were damaging the environment and causing a loss of livelihoods. “We respectfully ask you, Commissioners, to call upon Caribbean States to stop activities that aggravate the climate crisis such as ...

ExxonMobil is hopeful that the flash-gas compressor aboard the new oil production vessel, Liza Unity, would not be plagued by problems similar to those aboard the Liza Destiny that had affected production and incurred a hefty environmental fine, a company official said Tuesday. “We recognise the challenges that we had with the Liza Destiny start-up and the flash-gas compressor. We ...

President Irfaan Ali has welcomed the United States’ rejoining of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent in another nine years. Dr. Ali was quoted by government’s  Department of Public Information as welcoming the US’s decision earlier this year to rejoin the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and applauding US ...

The World Wildlife Fund, a global environmental conservation watchdog, is calling for a “full environmental and social assessment” of Guyana’s oil and gas sector, in the wake of recent controversies surrounding the clearing of mangroves along the west bank of the Demerara River. “Such an assessment will give decision-makers and the public-at-large an objective view of the  range of impacts ...

Public Infrastructure Minister Juan Edghill on Monday justified the clearance of a large swathe of mangroves at Versailles, West Bank Demerara. “Mangroves will have to be removed to facilitate infrastructure,” he told a news conference. He said the Sea and River Defence Board has offered its no-objection to the project, paving the way for the acquisition of lease and licence ...

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on Monday insisted that the proposed US$810 million to US$900 million gas-to-shore project would be viable in years to come, despite ongoing progress in scaling up renewable energy sources and reducing dependence on fossil fuels. “I don’t believe fossil fuel prices will fall. You still have a large number of years when fossil fuel prices will ...

The University of Guyana (UG) says it will benefit from  an inter-institutional collaboration that will strengthen the development of information  services for mangrove mapping and monitoring. Signing the  Memorandum of  Understanding (MoU) on Tuesday with UG were SERVIR-Amazonia and the National Aeronautics and Space  Administration (NASA). SERVIR-Amazonia, a subsidiary of SERVIR Global, is part of a joint development initiative  by ...

The Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation has again begun strictly enforcing the laws against gold mining in the almost 1 million acre reserve, after a lull due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Iwokrama Management is continuing its zero-tolerance approach to these activities, especially gold mining and other illegal activities,” the organisation said. In keeping with the mandate of Iwokrama, the ...

Former Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Dr. Vincent Adams and ExxonMobil were Wednesday at odds over the legality of the flaring of gas due to  a malfunctioned gas compressor that has since been flown to Germany for repairs. Dr. Adams said government should have ordered ExxonMobil to shut down its operations until the gas compressor is fixed, ...

Guyana is on the verge of signing an agreement with ExxonMobil for its Payara Development Plan that would provide for hefty fines for flaring and the dumping of untreated water back into the sea, Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat said Friday. He told News-Talk Radio Guyana 103.1 FM/Demerara Waves Online News that the actual fines were still under discussion ...