WHEN President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali spoke at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston last Monday, he aimed to reshape the entire global conversation, and he was right.
In front of industry leaders, investors, and policymakers from over 100 countries, Guyana’s leader made one of the clearest and most honest arguments this year: the planet needs energy balance more than it needs an energy transition.
This is not just wordplay. It corrects a prevailing narrative that has treated fossil fuels and renewables as opposing forces rather than as tools that can work together to meet the growing global energy gap.
The inconvenient truth President Ali highlighted in Houston is one that wealthy world-climate advocates have often avoided—record global clean energy investment of US$3.3 trillion in 2025 primarily goes to China, the United States, and the European Union, while regions with the fastest-growing energy needs receive the least funding. That is not a transition; it is the entrenchment of energy inequality masked in green rhetoric.
The president’s challenge was pointed: are we solving one environmental crisis while creating another? The demand for critical minerals for renewable technology has its own environmental costs: deforestation, toxic waste, and water stress in vulnerable communities.
These are not minor concerns. They are real issues that should make every sincere climate advocate think twice. Guyana is asking the right questions, even if many in the Western policy establishment are not yet willing to answer them honestly.
What strengthens Guyana’s argument is that the country is not just theorising; it is showing the model in action.
Guyana is one of the fastest-growing oil producers while also being a significant net carbon sink, with forests covering about 85 per cent of its land and absorbing over 150 million tonnes of carbon each year.
Through the Low Carbon Development Strategy 2030, Guyana became the first country to issue carbon credits under the ART-TREES standard, securing a landmark agreement valued at around US$750 million—funds directed toward renewable energy, climate resilience, and national development. That is not hypocrisy; that is innovative governance.
Domestically, the Gas-to-Energy project at Wales, the rollout of solar farms across all ten administrative regions, advancements in hydropower, and investments in smart grid technology and storage, all show that the government is serious about creating a diversified, resilient energy system, not just extracting oil and moving on.
The regional effort is also promising, with partnership projects underway with Suriname, Brazil, and French Guiana to build interconnected power infrastructure that will benefit the entire area.
Critics may argue that Guyana should leave its hydrocarbons in the ground. They are entitled to that view, but they should be ready to explain to Guyanese communities still waiting for reliable electricity, better roads, and improved healthcare how long they must wait for the world to address its renewable financing issues.
The energy transition, as it stands, is not happening quickly or broadly enough for the Global South. Guyana’s “energy balance” framework provides a practical and principled alternative, one that does not force a choice between development and climate responsibility because, as President Ali correctly states, those two goals do not have to conflict. The world listened in Houston. It should keep listening.
