Guyana President Mohamed Irfaan Ali slammed a BBC reporter in an interview this week for claiming that his small nation was contributing to climate change by allowing oil drilling off its coast.

BBC journalist Stephen Sackur suggested that Ali was wrong for allowing the drilling and asked him if he had the “right” to do so.

“Let’s take a big picture look at what’s going on here. Over the next decade, two decades, it is expected that there will be $150 billion worth of oil and gas extracted off your coast,” Sackur said. “It’s an extraordinary figure. But think of it in practical terms. That means, according to many experts, more than 2 billion tons of carbon emissions will come from your seabed from those reserves and be released into the atmosphere.”

“Let me stop you right there,” Ali fired back. “Let me stop you right there. Do you know that Guyana has a forest, forever, that is the size of England and Scotland combined? The forest stores 19.5 gigatons of carbon, a forest that we have kept alive, a forest that we have kept alive.”

“Does that give you the right to release all of this carbon?” Sackur asked.

“Does that give you the right to lecture us on climate change?” Ali fired back. “I am going to lecture you on climate change because we have kept this forest alive that stores 19.5 gigatons of carbon that you enjoy, that the world enjoys, that you don’t pay us for, that you don’t value, that you don’t see a value in, that the people of Guyana has kept alive.”

“Guess what? We have in the lowest deforestation rate in the world. And guess what? Even with our greatest exploration of the oil and gas resource we have now, we will still be net zero, Guyana will still be net zero with all our exploration,” he continued.

Sackur tried to cut Ali off, but Ali kept firing away.

“I am not finished yet. I am just not finished as yet,” he continued. “Because this is a hypocrisy that exists in the world. We, the world in the last 50 years, has lost 65% of all its biodiversity. We have kept our biodiversity. Are you valuing it? Are you ready to pay for it? When is the developed world going to pay for it? Or are you in the pockets of those who have damaged the environment? Are you and your system in the pockets of those who destroyed the environment through the Industrial Revolution and now lecturing us? Are you in their pockets? Are you paid by them?”

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The President of Guyana brought a wrecking ball to the BBC, which tried to guilt trip him and his country for exporting natural resources. pic.twitter.com/S5Md9Eh90j

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) March 31, 2024