Irfaan Ali is the centrist president of Guyana and leader of the People's Progressive Party (PPP). He won a second term in 2025, with the PPP securing 36 of 65 legislative seats. In his re-inauguration speech he said his second term would be the "most consequential" period in Guyana's history. He presides over a country whose GDP has quintupled in five years thanks to oil discoveries off the Atlantic coast.
At the COP30 conference in Belém, Brazil, Mr Ali pitched the forested nation as a climate leader, with a vague promise to spend its oil bonanza on climate-change adaptation.
I used to have a drinking problem. Now I love the stuff.