Guyanese President Schools BBC Journalist, Calls Western Media Hypocrite; Watch Video Video

A video of Guyanese President Irfaan Ali has created a buzz on the internet, in which, he can be seen schooling a BBC journalist and exposing Western media's hypocrisy when it comes to developing nations.

The video clip is from an interview when Stephen Sackur asked President Ali about the country's carbon emissions as it plans to extract oil and gas from its coast.

The video shows a high-voltage conversation between both over drastically changing climate.

In the banter, President cross questioned the interviewer whether he had the "right to lecture on climate change" and if he was in the "pockets of those who destroy the environment through the industrial revolution and are now lecturing us".

Sackur said extraction of oil and gas will lead to more than two billion tonnes of carbon emissions from Guyana's coast.

He also asked whether Irfaan Ali attended the COP28 climate summit in Dubai. To which the Guyanese President said: "Let me stop you right there. Do you know that Guyana has a forest cover that is the size of England and Scotland combined? A forest that stores 19.5 gigatons of carbon. Forests that we have kept alive."

"Even with our greatest exploration of the oil and gas resources we have now, we will still be net-zero (in emissions)," President Ali responded underlining the lowest deforestation rate.

"The world in the last 50 years has lost 65 percent of all its biodiversity. We have kept our biodiversity. Are you valuing it? Are you ready to pay for it? When will the developed world pay for it? Or are you in their pockets? Are you in the pockets of those who have damaged the environment? Are you in the pockets of those who destroyed the environment through the Industrial Revolution and are now lecturing us? Are you paid by them?" Irfaan Ali said sarcastically.