Guyanese President Irfaan Ali did not mince words while answering a BBC journalist who asked him about the country’s carbon emissions as it plans to extract oil and gas from its coast. In a viral video of the heated exchange from the BBC Hard Talk Show.
Ali stops the host and speakers Stephen Sackur and questions whether he had the right to lecture on climate change and if he was in the “pockets of those who destroy the environment thorough the industrial revolution and are now lecturing us.”
Sackur, citing reports said that the extraction of the oil and natural gas will lead to more than two million tonnes of carbon emissions from the Guyana’s coast. As he asks Irfaan Ali whether he attended the COP-28 Summit in Dubai, the Guyanese president interjects and says “Let me stop you right there. Do you know that Guyana’s forest cover is of the size and area of England and Scotland combined? A forest that stores 19.5 gigatons of carbon. Forests that we have kept alive.
The journalist then questioned if that gives Guyana “the right to release all of this carbon”. Irfaan Ali did not wait for the reporter to finish before he retorted “Does that give you the right to lecture us on climate change? I am going to lecture you on climate change because we have this forest alive that store 19.5 gigatons of carbon that you enjoy and the world enjoys.”
He pointed out that Guyana has the lowest deforestation rate in the world and added “Even with our greatest exploration of the oil and gas resources we have now, we still will be net zero in emissions. The Guyanese president added that his country is not paid for the forest that the country peoples have kept alive.
“The world in the last 50 years has lost 65 percent of all biodiversity. We have kept our biodiversity. Are you valuing it? Are you ready to pay for it? When will the developed world pay for it? Or are you in their pockets?
Are you in the pockets of those who have damaged the environment? Are you in the pockets of those who have destroyed the environment through the Industrial Revolution and now you are lecturing us? Are you paid by them?” asked Irfaan Ali in a sharp tone.
He pointed out that there exists a hypocrisy in the world when it comes to against developed countries exploring their oil and natural gas reserves. The video of Irfaan Ali schooling the reporter has gone viral with many commending him for his forthright manner of pointing out the hypocrisy in the developing countries
Interestingly, India had also slammed the controversial BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Gujarat Riots by saying it lacked objectivity and betrayed a colonial mindset. The Indian foreign ministry also said that it was a propaganda piece designed to push a particular discredited narrative.
“The bias, the lack of objectivity and frankly a continuing colonial mindset is blatantly visible. If anything, this film or documentary is a reflection on the agency and the individuals that are peddling this narrative again said the former External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi at the weekly briefing, it makes us wonder about the purpose of this exercise and the agenda behind it and frankly we do not wish to dignify such efforts.
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