Dear Editor
I WOULD like to join the 15 signatories to a letter that saluted Melinda Janki for winning the “Rule of Law” Award (2023) from the Commonwealth Law Association (Stabroek News, 20/2/2023). At the same time, however, I would like to show that Ms Janki’s overall efforts as an environmental activist is definitively misplaced. I shall insist forthwith that my observations are based on the totality of threats to the global climate stability, and are in no way a personal critique of the award recipient.

Editor, I trust you will allow this debate to take place.

To date, Ms Janki’s efforts seem to be wholly and fully dedicated against the oil-and-gas sector in Guyana, a small developing nation in the Caribbean. Note that to the best of my knowledge, though Ms Janki won an award for the “Rule of Law,” she is not known to have protested against the wanton attempts by the APNU+AFC to rig the 2020 national and regional elections in the same Guyana.

Now, allow me to show that Janki’s efforts on oil and gas in Guyana are misdirected. My contention is two-fold. First, rather than critiquing energy development in Guyana because of the associated environmental consequences, she should be directing her attention to the world’s biggest polluters. I will focus on the energy-consumption side of the greenhouse emissions equation. The second aspect of my concerns relates to the North-South dimensions of world energy consumption, a situation that speaks to the most horrific inequalities in the world.

Let us begin with coal consumption, since it is patently dangerous to human health and to the global ecosystem. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists “[i]n the United States, coal accounts for roughly one-quarter of all energy-related carbon emissions.” Coal contributes about 22 per cent to US electricity supplies.

Incidentally, natural gas contributes roughly 38% of US electricity consumption, but Ms Janki is content on being silent on that, while attacking our gas-to-energy project.

Let us get back to the North-South inequality noted above. Below is a quick glance of coal consumption expressed in per capita cubic feet per annum – Australia 5,343; Czech Republic 4653; Greece 3,587; Poland 3916; Germany 3,132; USA 2,263; Japan 1648; and Canada 1,179. While it is true that the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia are top users, Global South countries in general are minimal users of coal. Take a look at the comparable figures for, Mexico 182; Pakistan 50; Venezuela six; and Sri Lanka 109. Coal is not used in Guyana.

How about per capita electricity consumption? The following data (expressed in per capita kilowatt hours) clearly shows North-South disparities. Norway 27,529; Sweden 16,538; Canada 16,405; USA 12,314; Australia 9,531; France 8,545; and still in the Global North, Japan at 7,692. Some of the largest countries in the Third World show significantly lower per capita consumption of electricity. Note for instance, Brazil 3,091; India 1,218 and Nigeria (indicative of most African countries) 147 kilowatts. Guyana’s consumption rate, by comparison is at 982 kilowatts.

Gasoline consumption expressed in per capita gallons reveals dramatic North-South disparities. Note the following – Singapore 3,679; Luxemburg 1,487; Canada 1,047; Netherlands 846; Japan 480; Germany 444; France 404; UK 366. Guyana’s consumption stands at 278. Sixty-one countries in the world consume less than 100 gallons (per capita) per annum, and as you might guess all are in the Third World.

Editor, natural gas is known to be a transition energy source in so far as its greenhouse effects are less damaging compared to coal or gasoline. Yet many of the letter writers who support Ms Janki are protesting our gas-to-energy (NGL) project being developed at Wales on the West Bank of Demerara. But even here, Editor, the critics are misguided. Excepting the Gulf States, the biggest consumers of natural gas are in fact in the Global North. Canada, where some of the critics live, is among the very highest consumers of natural gas with a mammoth per capita of 112.5 cubic feet. I specifically wish to remind Dr Bulkan that every Canadian contributed 18.58 tons (per capita) of CO2 emissions. The comparable figure for Guyana is 4.22 tons per capita.

The data above clearly indicate that there is widespread bullying taking place in the global climate change space. Powerful countries that are among the worst polluters are the very ones who have control over multilateral institutions, including development financing. Those same countries have powerful NGOs that though guided by the right convictions on many issues of human rights, broadly defined, are ideologically fixated on the proposition that the rich countries should protect their standard of living as the first and most important goal.

Those same NGOs recruit elites from the Third World to join their cause. If those same NGOs were truly democratic where global governance is concerned, they would focus on life-style changes in the Global North, which has produced 79 per cent of the greenhouse gases since the industrial revolution. I must also insist that the militaries in many of these countries are also the most significant polluters.

Guyana is not in the same ideological space as it was during the Cold War. We have accepted that markets have an important role to play. We are playing by those rules, norms and expectations.

The leadership is also clear that the country is dedicated to taking concrete steps in climate change mitigation and adaptation. Our avoided deforestation commitments, and more broadly our Low Carbon Development Strategy have been widely acknowledged. It is time that the handful of urban intellectuals in Guyana “get with it.”
Ms Janki is a known quantity and she can very well use her intellectual and professional energies to call for greater justice in the relations between Global North and South. Why not revive the spirit of Bandung, rather than stand with the political and economic interests in countries that are already in an era of excessive consumption?

Sincerely.
Dr Randolph Persaud