Commonwealth warns oil boom is putting US$43.5B in assets at flood risk

(Kaieteur News) – The Commonwealth has urged Guyana to set aside a portion of its national revenues to finance long-term coastal resilience, warning that the country’s oil-driven economic boom is placing billions of dollars in assets within an increasingly vulnerable coastal zone.

The aforementioned is stated in a study published in October that was commissioned by the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Climate Change and Oceans Directorate that focuses on Guyana, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Tuvalu. The study noted that none of the five countries yet has adaptation governance and finance arrangements adequate enough to deal with the scale of the threat posed by rising sea levels.

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The findings of the five-country case studies on sea level rise outline that in each case, the countries’ sea level rise is well above the global average of approximately 3.2–3.5mm per year. The rates range from roughly 5mm per year in Tuvalu and Kiribati to 7.3mm per year in Tonga and 4.7–10.2mm per year in Guyana.