Dear Editor,
I offer deserved kudos to the Environmental Protection Agency and its Head, Kemraj Parsram, for putting the organisation in a position to access satellite images of offshore flaring. This is a very good move, and it debunks a lot of the nonsensical and unfair attacks the Head, and the entity have been receiving. According to Kemraj Parsram, with this intervention, steps have been taken to increase the agency’s surveillance capacity of operations aboard the Liza Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO). The end result will mean that ExxonMobil’s subsidiary and operator of the Stabroek Block, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) will now “… have to document daily gas flared and emissions or constituents in it, as well as carbon equivalent but we are not only depending on them. We have hired a Geographical Information Systems specialist and acquired satellite image capability. This allows us to access real-time data.” This indeed is the way to go, and I hope that the public will appreciate that the EPA is not a puppet or push-over group of Guyanese.
Let me remind all that the Environmental Protection Agency is still quite young and ever evolving. It was legally established by the Environmental Protection Act in 1996. It has the responsibility to take the necessary measures to manage, conserve, protect and improve environment. So, the monitoring system, now in place, is indeed a wonderful and good omen. Let us remember too that Mr. Parsram did not inherit any good standing from the previous regime. In fact, one of the first things he did was to take a strong stance on flaring, increasing the tax on flaring from US$30—per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent released—to US$45. So when attacks are hurled willy-nilly, this must be remembered. This move also proved great in a financial sense, as the EPA has already received $400M in penalty fees from ExxonMobil. Let me close by making a comment on the supposed “Extensive research” that was conducted, and reported in the press, saying that ‘gas flaring’ contributes to climate change. Well, this kind of information does not really need any extensive research, and we all know that ‘gas flaring’ does have serious implications for the human security and wellbeing globally. However, this knowledge must be put into proper academic perspective. If readers take the time and effort and research for the causes of climate change, many of the image results will show smoke billowing out of coal plants. The burning of coal, natural gas, and oil for heat and electricity is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions globally. However, there are also many other factors to take into consideration.
A recent Oxford University article explains that the planet is warming, in part, because of something called the greenhouse effect. This is when the sun’s rays hit the earth and the majority of that radiation bounces right back out into space. But during that process, a small portion is absorbed by chemicals in our atmosphere. These are called greenhouse gases. Human activities, for instance, the way we heat our homes, fuel our cars, and what food we produce all contribute to more gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and others, which is a process that drives up the temperature of the planet. So, we ask, what is the biggest contributor to climate change? See for yourselves, as according to data, electricity and heat generation accounts for 25% of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Food and land contribute 24%, industry 21%, while transportation contributes to 14%. Overall, Guyana is low on negative emissions in all these areas. I mean, if we say that ExxonMobil is transgressing in Guyana, then in terms of industry and transportation, Guyana’s value is insignificant. Just go see where we get cars, and how many we have overall, as against the superpowers of today.
Another question is the source of the world’s greenhouse gases. Again, Oxford was poignant. The report shows that “Not all continents are equal when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions.” Using measurements from 2017, it was found that Asia is by far the largest emitter, accounting for 53% of global emissions, followed by North America at 18%, Europe at 17%, Africa and South America at 3% to 4% each, and Oceana, which includes Australia and a number of Pacific Islands, at just 1.3% of global emissions. Wow! Guyana can sure be proud of itself. As a caveat, let it be known that the figures recorded reflect emissions only from fossil fuels and cement production, but they give a good idea of where things stand. When we go by country and population, the numbers start to look a little different. China, the United States, and India lead the world in carbon emissions. But let us all remember that global warming is a global problem, and solutions must come in the form of more renewable energy sources, dietary shifts, moving to electric transport systems, and the eventual halting of the extraction of fossil fuels.
Sincerely,
H. Singh