A recently released report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is a cause for serious concern for all who care about the state of our planet and its future well-being. Among the key findings are: one million species of plants and animals are threatened with extinction; three-quarters of the earth’s land and two thirds of its marine environment have been ‘significantly altered’ by human activity; more than 85 percent of wetlands have disappeared; more than 90 percent of the oceans’ fish stocks are being harvested above sustainable levels; and more than 40 percent of amphibians are threatened with or on the brink of extinction, as are a third of marine mammals, a third of sharks, a third of corals and over 10 percent of the world’s insects. (See https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2019/05/11/a-new-report-confirms-that-life-on-earth-is-in-trouble.)
Another recent report by the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative asserted that global delays in tackling climate change will cost the world’s largest companies £1 trillion. According to the UK insurance giant Aviva that was involved in the compilation of the data for the report, the valuation of the fossil fuel sector has gone up by about $580 billion (£445 billion) since the 2015 Paris Agreement, and ‘[f]or the governments to think their job is done now that the Paris Agreement is signed is wrong. This remains the world’s biggest market failure’. (See https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/un-climate-change-will-cost-worlds-biggest-firms-almost-c2-a31trn/ar-AAB901P)
During the period 8-10 May 2019, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) heard arguments on the appeals against the rulings of the Guyana High Court and the Guyana Court of Appeal on the appointment of the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and the validity of the 21 December 2018 vote of no confidence in the Government. In this article, we highlight some pertinent arguments raised by lawyers as well as the comments of the judges.