In December 2024, two Guyanese citizens, Wintress Morris and Joy Marcus, brought judicial review proceedings against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to require the inclusion of Scope 3 emissions in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for ExxonMobil’s Hammerhead oil project. Scope 3 emissions refer to the indirect greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the end-use of fossil fuels—in this case, oil produced by the project and burned elsewhere. The applicants challenged the EPA’s approval of the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the EIA, arguing that the failure to address Scope 3 emissions breached Guyana’s EPA by omitting a full assessment of the project’s environmental impacts.

The applicants argued that the EPA failed in its statutory duty to require comprehensive EIAs under the Environmental Protection Act. They specifically claimed the EIA’s exclusion of Scope 3 emissions was unlawful and that greenhouse gas pollution must be properly assessed given its contribution to climate change and ocean acidification.

On March 18, 2025, Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall ruled that Scope 3 emissions are part of the indirect effects of the Hammerhead project and therefore must be identified, described, and evaluated in EIAs conducted under the Environmental Protection Act. However, the judge dismissed the application, finding that the EPA had amended the EIA Terms of Reference after the case was filed to explicitly include Scope 3 emissions. As a result, the legal challenge no longer warranted further judicial intervention.

Morris and Marcus v. Environmental Protection Agency

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

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A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives