Oil and climate change in small states
| Published date | 01 March 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00207020231179050 |
| Author | Ivelaw Lloyd Griffith |
| Date | 01 March 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Policy Brief |
Oil and climate change
in small states
Ivelaw Lloyd Griffith
Caribbean Policy Consortium, Washington, DC, USA
Abstract
This article challenges Daniel Yergin’s proposition that climate mobilization, and not
energy security, is the main driver of contemporary international engagement. I exam-
ine the realities of Guyana and Suriname, two small states in the Guyana-Suriname
Basin (GSB) that give equal weight to energy security and climate issues. The two
have oil reserves that together comprise more than 16 billion barrels. Guyana and
Suriname are also in Wet Neighbourhoods with massive rainforests, and due to global
warming, the Guyana capital is forecast to be fully or partially submerged by 2030.
The article argues that GSB leaders must use some of their countries’oil revenues
to craft an Environmental Security Investment Plan, noting that although rising sea
levels might only minimally affect offshore drilling, they will disrupt habitation and
societal normalcy, and the oil wealth would be of little benefit to the people if appro-
priate mitigation is not undertaken urgently.
Keywords
petro power, climate change, Guyana-Suriname Basin, environmental security,
wet neighbourhoods, sea-level rise, floods, small states
In his magisterial tome, The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations,
Pulitzer prize-winning author Daniel Yergin asserts: “The main driver today is not
energy security, as in past decades, but climate and the mobilization around it, partic-
ularly among young people.”
1
There certainly is credence to this proposition in relation
Corresponding author:
Ivelaw Lloyd Griffith, Caribbean Policy Consortium, 1629 K Street NW, Washington, DC, 20006.
Email: ivelawlloyd@gmail.com
1. Daniel Yergin, The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations (New York: Penguin Books,
2020), 427.
Policy Brief
International Journal
2023, Vol. 78(1-2) 254–262
© The Author(s) 2023
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DOI: 10.1177/00207020231179050
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