THE University of Guyana (UG) has launched an Energy Think Tank initiative to help Guyana figure out how it can balance both the development of hydrocarbons and a green, sustainable energy economy.

The Think Tank initiative was launched on Friday at the university’s Turkeyen Campus through the help of key interdisciplinary technical and policy framing agents from the academic and non-academic community.

Explaining the drive behind the launching, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Philanthropy, Alumni and Civic Engagement (PACE), Dr. Paloma Mohamed stated that other countries in the world have not been able to maintain the balance but Guyana wants to be the one with a difference. “No country in the world has ever been able to achieve what Guyana is setting out to do, which is to find a way to use fossil fuels and to explore a vast offshore theatre and still maintain the stance and a future of sustainability, greenness and renewable energy,” she said.

The teams which facilitated the Think Tank were the university’s Internal task force on energy; a group of key organisations and international partners. These included Trent University, CbMEX, Arizona State University, the faculty of Engineering and Technology, the Faculty of Natural Sciences, the Faculty of Social Sciences, the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA); the Department of Energy; the Department of Environment and the Guyana Oil Company.

From May 29 to June 3, the group of energy academics will help to fashion Guyana’s energy agenda for the future. Some of their main goals are to clarify, propose and support a research agenda on energy for UG and to discuss and formulate a medium to long term national agenda.

Presenting the keynote address at the launching was Senior Professor of Physics, Astronomy and Chemistry at Trent University, Professor Suresh Narine. He put into context the importance of the Think Tank in Guyana, by repeating a quote he once stumbled upon while in Rome which stated: ‘Action without strategy is a nightmare and strategy without action is simply a day dream’.

Narine then acknowledged energy as crucial to Guyana’s development but, with oil on the horizon, he stated the country must now seek to address questions related to sustainability, proper management, Regional security and economics. “It isn’t petroleum that results in that high quality of life, it’s access to energy,” Narine stated. “It is good that we’re creating strategies [like the Green State Development Strategy]. It’s even better that the University of Guyana is seeking to bring together minds in order to inform those kinds of strategies.”

He encouraged the participants to engage in dialogue on how Guyana can use its revenues from petroleum to generate sustainable growth.

He reminded that every country in the world has access to sunlight and wind, therefore, access to alternative energy. However, Narine pointed out that the greatest challenge to alternative energy is storage and, therefore, encouraged the academic minds to also look at effective means of storing high-density energy. On Friday, remarks also came from Arizona State University Professor, Gary Dirks, who noted the transition from fossil fuels as complicated but necessary.

Meanwhile, Programme Manager of the Energy Unit at the CARICOM Secretariat, Devon Gardner, congratulated the University and team for the useful and timely initiative. He reminded that the energy sector, responsible for the development of hydrocarbons, must also be the one to deliver the solutions to climate change. Following the launching, the various groups participated in a closed, all-day symposium tackling the pressing questions highlighted.