“Guyanese Citizens File Climate Case Claiming Massive Offshore Oil Project is Unconstitutional”, 21 May 2021

...Guyanese citizens filed the first constitutional climate case in the Caribbean to challenge fossil fuel production on the grounds that it exacerbates global warming and threatens human rights. The case, before Guyana’s Constitutional Court, claims that Guyana’s approval of a massive, ExxonMobil-led oil and gas buildout off the country’s coast violates the government’s legal duty to protect the rights to a healthy environment, sustainable development, and the rights of future generations..The case comes just days after the International Energy Agency warned that the world must immediately halt approvals of new oil and gas projects to keep warming below 1.5°C; less than a week after more than 100 Exxon shareholders warned that the company must align its business plans to the Paris Agreement to avoid significant risks of stranded assets; and days before Exxon’s Annual General Meeting...Guyana sits at the epicenter of a massive new oil frontier that spans the northern coast of South America from offshore Guyana to the mouth of the Amazon in Brazil. Offshore oil discoveries in Guyana total more than 14 Billion BOE to date. Exxon is the first and biggest operator in the country and the largest stakeholder in a joint venture with Hess Oil and the Chinese National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC-Nexen)...Exxon’s Petroleum Production Agreement with Guyana requires the country to repay the company for substantially all exploration and development costs; shifting the risks to development to the people of Guyana. As a result, the development of these reserves exposes Guyana’s people and economy not only to the climate impacts of greater fossil fuel combustion but to the profound risk of tying the country’s future development to oil at a moment when the industry faces urgent, necessary and inevitable decline…The legal action is being filed by two Guyanese citizens: Dr. Troy Thomas, a scientist and university lecturer, and Quadad de Freitas, an Indigenous youth from South Rupununi...