Impacts of Oil Discovery on Venezuela and Guyanae's Environment

Speaker 2
And just sort of a side bracket question, Venezuela has its own oil, doesn't it?
Speaker 1
Venezuela is a hugely oil-rich country. The problem for Venezuela is that over years has seen a massive collapse of its economy. Its people are living in dire poverty. Oil and gas is subject to huge systemic corruption in Venezuela. Of course it's all state-run, it is socialist Venezuela. I mean there's just massive dysfunction in Venezuela right now. So its oil and gas riches are not doing anything to deliver prosperity to its people.
Speaker 2
So Steve, we've talked about how the discovery of oil is really changing Guyanae's prospect, possibly for the good economically, but with other impact as well, the heightened tensions with neighbouring Venezuela. And now I'd like to talk about whether it could be an existential threat to the country in terms of the environment. You're listening to the global story.
Speaker 3
If you're
Speaker 2
enjoying this episode, don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. Stephen, clearly the discovery of more oil isn't good news for the environment in terms of the world says it's going to try and get away from fossil fuels. But Guyanae itself is really vulnerable to climate change. Incredibly so, isn't
Speaker 1
it? Yeah, this is one of the ironies of Guyanae's current situation. They have now access to this remarkable reserve of fossil fuels. At the same time, there are very few countries in the entire world that are more vulnerable to the effects of global heating than Guyanae. There are Guyanae's people who are more focused on the sort of environmental aspects of this and who see real cause for concern. And one of the sort of loudest and highest profile environmental campaigners is Vander Ratsig.
Speaker 3
It seems as if our authority is the powers that be politically and otherwise are like oblivious to these facts, are oblivious to Guyanae and the Caribbean are one of the most vulnerable places on the whole wide world and on planet Earth. And yet we are plowing ahead with what is going to be a massive impact, negatively, against climate change in
Speaker 1
the world. Most of Guyanae's 800,000 people live below sea level, defended by sea walls and a complicated system of Dutch built drains and sluice gates which are aging and somewhat problematic. And so if there is a sea level rise, Guyanae is going to be in trouble. So putting that vast oil and gas reserve into the world's atmosphere by burning it is not in Guyanae's interest. So what's your alternative suggestion? The government walks away from tens of billions of dollars of income that comes with oil production simply doesn't allow any
Speaker 3
of that oil and gas to be exploited. Well I think there's a spectrum of opinion on that. So at one end of the spectrum you have those that say leave the oil in the ground. And then at the other end of that spectrum you have people in Guyanae who are vociferously saying we negotiate the contract, put in place the ring fencing, let us get the best deal we can get out of these resources instead of the worst deal.

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