Oil producers and the Sustainable Development Goals

LUCAS STOCK INDEXThe Lucas Stock Index (LSI) rose 1.06 percent during the first period of trading in April 2017. The stocks of four companies were traded with 270,360 shares changing hands. There were three Climbers and one Tumbler. The stocks of Demerara Bank Limited (DBL) rose 4.35 percent on the sale of 250,000 shares. The stocks of Republic Bank Limited (RBL) rose 3.39 percent on the sale of 19,547 shares and the stocks of Demerara Tobacco Company (DTC) rose 0.11 percent on the sale of 153 shares. At the same time, the stocks of Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (BTI) fell 1.0 percent on the sale of 660 shares.

Future-looking strategy
Ever since the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, the world was seized with issues of sustainable development with some urgency. But sustainable development became the central theme of the global development agenda when members of the international community threw their weight behind the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 after it became abundantly clear that human progress could not proceed without a sustainable environment. The pursuit of sustainable development is a future-looking strategy that is intended to confront the consequences of past human conduct which is giving rise to global warming and climate change, and to stall what might be the inevitable without radical alterations in future human behaviour. This focus on agreed concerted action came at a time when the world was celebrating the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and recognized that the elimination of poverty, malnutrition and hunger had to be coupled simultaneously with strong efforts to protect the planet. The linkage between the two imposed a challenge on the international community to act with both compassion and responsibility