Two Guyanese citizens are legally challenging ExxonMobil offshore drilling on climate grounds. They claim Guyana’s approval of oil exploration licenses violates the government’s legal duty to protect their right and the right of future generations to a healthy environment. It is the first constitutional climate case in the Caribbean to challenge fossil fuel production on climate and human rights grounds, reports the Guardian.
The case was filed by Quadad de Freitas, a 21-year old Indigenous tourist guide from the Rupununi region -- an area rich in biodiversity, now threatened by climate change -- and Dr. Troy Thomas, a university lecturer and former president of the anti-corruption organization Transparency Institute Guyana.They argue the government is obligated to refrain from authorizing activities that would contribute significantly to climate change, ocean acidification and/or sea level rise, reports Kaieteur News.
Their research found that the projected emissions of Exxon's three projects in Guyana -- Liza Phase 1 Development Project, Liza Phase 2 Development Project, and the Payara Development project would make the environment more harmful to the health and wellbeing of citizens and future generations. They also argue the government is obligated to carry out or obtain independent verification of the types and amounts of greenhouse gases actually emitted by the projects.
The lawsuit centers on the duty of the state to protect the environment for present and future generations, lead lawyer Melinda Janki told Reuters. Much of Guyana’s coast sits below sea level, making its population particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts such as flooding, hurricanes, and rising seas. For that reason alone, further investment in oil and gas production by Guyana doesn’t make sense, environmentalists argue. (Grist)
The case forms part of an international trend: The number of legal cases seeking stronger climate action or compensation has nearly doubled over the last three years. New legal techniques and landmark wins are setting precedents, reports Reuters.
Last week, in a landmark ruling, a Dutch court ordered the oil giant Shell to cut its emissions by 45 percent this decade. The ruling marks the first time a court has mandated such a policy on a major energy company and, crucially, establishes Shell's responsibility for the environmental damage caused by its products and a failure to adequately plan to reduce its emissions, reports Politico.
“The Shell case is extremely relevant for Guyana,” Carroll Muffett, chief executive of the Center for International Environmental Law, told the Wall Street Journal. He said both cases center on using the U.N.’s climate-change framework to hold entities accountable for human rights.
Melinda Janki, the lead lawyer in the Guayana case, said she was encouraged because the Dutch case prevailed using similar arguments to her strategy. The litigation is “about stopping a massive increase in carbon emission, a carbon bomb,” she said to the WSJ.
- Conservationists hope to create the Maya Forest Corridor, connecting the massive Belize Maya Forest in the country’s northwest with the Maya Mountains Massif network of protected areas in southern Belize. It would also connect these areas of Belize with adjacent protected areas of La Selva Maya in Guatemala and Mexico, and become the largest rainforest preserve north of the Amazon. But pandemic economic hardship could push the Belizean government to consider unsustainable land use alternatives that come with a guaranteed tax revenue stream, writes Jut Wynne at Mongabay.
- The Atlantic Hurricane season has started, and experts predict up to 18 named storms and at least three major hurricanes this year. The Barbados-based Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology has divided the hurricane season into three parts: the first and second halves and the peak season, which spans sections of the halves. (iWitness News)
- In St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the hurricane season could add to "a year of cascading hazards from COVID19 pandemic to the current response and impacts from the recent volcanic eruptions," warned Acting Prime Minister Montgomery Daniel. (iWitness News)
- The Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) has launched an online interactive story map about a collective advocacy campaign that called on Caribbean governments to join and implement the Escazú Agreement.
- Jamaica's government established an electric vehicle council to oversee a consultative process on the introduction of electromobility, reports the Jamaica Observer.
Food Security
- Severe acute childhood malnutrition is set to more than double this year in Haiti, warns UNICEF. More than 86,000 children under the age of 5 could be affected, compared with 41,000 reported last year, reports the Associated Press.
Covid-19 Impact
- The COVID-19 response in Haiti must be scaled up dramatically to cope with sharply escalating cases, hospitalizations and deaths in recent weeks, warned Director Carissa Etienne this week. She explained that the increased transmission is likely fueled by two variants of concern, B 1.1.7 and P1, and because public health measures are “being largely ignored by the general population, the situation we’re seeing in Haiti is a cautionary tale in just how quickly things can change with this virus”. (Eyewitness News)
- Covid-19 has impacted the Caribbean unequally: Some islands were walloped by staggering caseloads, while infections on others sometimes dwindled to single digits, reports the New York Times. And now disparate travel restrictions, often dependent on island's colonial history, are causing further divergence in the economic recovery of countries in world’s most tourism-reliant region.
- The pandemic has proved conclusively that without tourism much of the Caribbean economy is unviable. Echoing a recent IDB report, David Jessop asks whether the basic product of sun, sea and sand is sustainable? -- The Caribbean Council
- Cuba’s bet on vaccine sovereignty may be coming at a lethal price as coronavirus deaths on the island mount, reports the Miami Herald. Cuba is rushing to get ahead of the virus, as it needs to jump-start its economy and revive tourism, a key source of revenue for the embattled island that’s struggling during its worst crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Regional Relations
- U.S. President Joe Biden's inaction towards Cuba is aggravating the island's food crisis, argues William LeoGrande in Common Dreams. U.S. support for human rights in Cuba should include alleviating the food crisis by ending Trump's prohibition on remittances and restoring the right of U.S. residents to travel, he writes.
- U.S. sanctions impact the daily lives of all Cubans, but especially women. The sixty-year embargo affects families and their livelihoods, and limits progress toward a more fair and inclusive society, according to a new Oxfam report.
- U.S. hand wringing over Caribbean relations with China lacks a nuanced understanding of what the region has gained and hopes to gain from its engagement with China, Rasheed Griffith told the U.S. Congress' U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. "The fundamental question should not be why is China engaging in the Caribbean. Rather, it should be why do Caribbean countries so readily seek deals with Chinese firms?"
- The international community has remained largely silent on the question of Haiti's controversial upcoming constitutional referendum, but its policies are going a long way toward ensuring the controversial referendum takes place as scheduled, writes Jake Johnston at CEPR.
Public Security
- Barbados' homicide increases in recent years risk bely the country's risk factor advantages over other Caribbean countries, including low international crime organization presence and limited corruption. The country is at a violence crossroads, reports InSight Crime.
- Trinidad and Tobago is edging closer to amending its Equal Opportunity Act to include sexual orientation -- Global Voices
- A court in Martinique granted a twenty-three year old person permission to legally change their gender. (St. Lucia Times)
Culture
- The guiding theme of this year's Cayman Islands Biennial is intended to recast the long months of lockdown as an extended interlude – an opportunity for everyone to pause and reflect on their collective future. (Repeating Islands)
- Jamaican poet and novelist Kei Miller’s forthcoming book, a linked collection of essays, blends memoir and literary commentary to explore the silences that exist in our conversations about race, sex, and gender. (Repeating Islands)
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