Energy transition must be fair, not protect the rich – President Ali

As the world grapples with the escalating climate crisis, Guyana’s President Dr. Irfaan Ali has reaffirmed the need for countries to transition from their dependence on fossil fuels to more renewable sources of energy.

However, he emphasised this shift must be fair and practical.

“Simple calls for new [oil] producers to ‘leave it in the ground’ are, in reality, a form of protectionism – protecting those who are already wealthy as incumbents,” President Ali said at a leaders’ roundtable discussion on the energy transition at this year’s UN climate talks in Belém.

Those calls are seemingly personal. Guyana, the tiny South American country home to less than one million people, started producing oil in 2019. It is one of the largest per-capita oil producers in the world, with plans to hike daily production to more than one million barrels of oil by the end of the decade. The windfall from the nascent sector has been significant, so ceasing production means a major loss of revenue for the country.

The President pointed out that even with countries meaningfully switching to renewable energy, there will still be a demand and need for fossil fuels.

“Fossil fuels still provide more than 80% of global energy. For example, the International Energy Agency tells us that oil demand in a net zero scenario will reduce from about 100 million barrels a day today to 72 million by 2030 and 24 million by 2050,” he told his colleagues.

Guyana, he said previously, should be one of the suppliers meeting the diminishing demand for fossil fuels, as the sweet, light crude produced by the country covered in well-protected rainforests, has great value.

At the COP30 energy transition discussion, the President clearly said that oil producers with high-carbon, inefficient production should be phased out. For him, countries with “lower-carbon, responsibly managed production” should meet the declining demand as the world shifts to renewables.

“That requires global rules – a carbon price that reflects real costs, the removal of fossil-fuel subsidies, and competition based on carbon intensity, not legacy advantage,” the President said.