Guyanese Citizens File Landmark Lawsuit Over Oil Drilling

Photo: Gerald Herbert (AP)
Two Guyanese climate activists are taking their nation’s government to court. Late last month, the plaintiffs filed a lawsuit alleging that a deal Guyanese officials struck with Exxon allowing the energy company to expand its oil production off the country’s coast violates their right and the right of future generations to a healthy environment.
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“These rights are in the constitution,” said Troy Thomas, a professor of mathematics, physics, and statistics at the University of Guyana and one of the plaintiffs. “They couldn’t be stated more clearly.”
The case is a groundbreaking one for the Caribbean and follows a wave of other lawsuits around the world taking on oil companies and governments on constitutional grounds. In December 2019, citizens won a case against the Dutch government for failing to properly address climate change and violating human rights while German activists won a similar case earlier this year. Yet another case brought by Dutch citizens against Shell for its climate failures was decided in citizens’ favor last week.

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