The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Climate justice activists protest China’s interests in fossil fuel projects in Africa
Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | On Aug.22, the BRICS bloc of nations (Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa) began its 15th Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, to among other issues discuss possible expansion of the group to include more nations as they attempt to give non-Western countries more influence globally.
But, the next day (Aug.23), about 400 environmental and climate justice activists gathered at Innesfree Park in Sandton, to protest against the Chinese state and its enterprises that continue to invest in fossil fuel and extractive projects across Africa.
The demonstration was reinforced by hundreds of activists from civil society organisations and community-based organisations from across the continent including Uganda, Tanzania, DR Congo, and Kenya who took to the X platform under the hashtags #StopEACOP, #EndFossilFuelFinancing and #BRICSProtest to add their voices to calls on China to withdraw its involvement in all new fossil fuel projects across Africa.
The demonstrators called upon China to “immediately cease” financing projects in Africa that undermine global climate goals and which cause irreparable harm to local communities. The activists who included the #StopEACOP coalition specifically targeted the China-backed East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), and its associated oil drilling sites, in Uganda and Tanzania.
The protests also targeted China’s involvement in the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone in South Africa, the Hwange coal-related projects in Zimbabwe, and the Cabo Delgado gas projects in Mozambique. These projects are incompatible with China’s climate action and cooperation pledges to Global South countries, the activists said.
BRICS Summit
This year’s three-day summit that ran from Aug.22-24 was held under the theme, “BRICS Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development and Inclusive Multilateralism.”
The theme was informed by South Africa’s five development priorities: Developing a partnership towards an equitable just transition including managing the risks associated with climate change, transforming education and skills development for the future, unlocking opportunities through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), strengthening post-pandemic socioeconomic recovery and the attainment of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development; and strengthening multilateralism including reform of global governance institutions and strengthening the meaningful participation of women in peace processes.
However, the activists said despite China’s claims of friendship with Africa, China’s actions often tell a different story – one of the destructive, exploitative, and resource-driven endeavours that lay bare the reality of Chinese “development” on the continent.
“The BRICS presidents are giving false hope to the masses. Their feigned anti-imperialism is not anti-capitalist. Their geopolitical manoeuvers do not prioritize the interests of the working class and the poor. Theirs is an elitist, top-down political and economic project driven by the rich and powerful,” said Trevor Ngwane, the Chairperson of United Front, a South African civil society coalition.
“They had their BRICS Business Forum but where is the civil society forum? Do they not want to hear the voice of the trade unions, community organizations and youth movements? Are they going to make all the big decisions without consulting those who will have to live with the consequences of those decisions?”
“The worst part is that all the BRICS countries are big carbon emitters with South Africa being the biggest emitter in Africa. Their climate denialism and deflectionism do not consider that the people who will be worst affected by climate disasters are people in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The BRICS political project is not the solution. The only solution for the working class and the poor is socialism,” Ngwane added.
Charity Migwi, the Africa Regional Campaigner at 350.org, an international movement of ordinary people that claims to work to end the age of fossil fuels noted that China has the opportunity to step up and be the partner it claims to be to African nations by ending fossil fuel projects like EACOP once and for all.
“Our livelihoods and shared future are at stake. It’s time for China to stand with African people by stopping the continued flow of finance to these harmful projects that enrich profit-hungry fossil fuel companies, and instead redirect financing towards a sustainable and climate-compatible energy future built on renewables,” she said.
“The BRICS countries must keep their commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We urge all to abandon any fossil fuel projects planned so they may meet the targeted carbon neutrality by 2050,” added Makoma Lekalakala, the Director at Earthlife Africa.
China’s Climate Pledge to Africa
The activists noted that China signed a climate declaration with Africa in 2021, where it pledged not to invest in new coal projects abroad. China also pledged greater support for climate adaptation.
On Dec.2, 2021, a declaration on China-Africa cooperation on combating climate change was published in which the heads of delegation of China, the 53 African states and the African Union Commission said they “hold the view that climate change and its negative impacts are an urgent problem facing humanity and one of the most serious challenges in the world currently (and) joint efforts to tackle climate change bear on the future of mankind.”
The declaration called for a revolution in human society to mitigate the impact of climate change through, among others, speeding up affordable green and low-carbon transition, promoting sustainable development and jointly fostering a community of life for man and nature. Interestingly, the activists said, China has ended up supporting “destructive projects like the EACOP” which entirely contradict these promises.
They pointed fingers at several Chinese actors including the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and the Industrial Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) for actively supporting controversial projects across the continent including the EACOP, which is set to be the world’s longest heated crude oil pipeline, and is now mired in controversies over alleged human and environmental rights violations.
Other potential backers of the project, according to the activists, are China Exim Bank and Sinosure, a state-funded insurance company established to support China’s foreign and trade development and cooperation. They said they will continue to exert pressure until China stops bankrolling fossil fuel expansion in Africa.
“The time has come to demand better from this rising global power (China), urging them to change their approach and prioritize the well-being and prosperity of African nations and their citizens, especially frontline communities devastated by the fossil fuel industry,” the activists said in a statement sent to The Independent.
“This requires that China reassess its involvement in numerous harmful projects across the continent and adopt a partnership model rooted in the principles of equity, justice, transparency and collective benefit for communities, workers and citizens.”
A true friend to Africa?
The activists say China must prove itself as a true friend to the continent by making a dramatic and practical shift toward the rapid and widespread development of renewable energy alternatives that promote sustainable and lasting job opportunities, far-reaching energy access and socio-economic and environmental well-being for communities across the continent.
“Projects like EACOP show China’s rhetoric doesn’t match reality. A true friend to Africa would not fund projects that displace communities, unravel livelihoods and destroy ecosystems. We are demanding a new partnership and development model one rooted in the principles of justice, equity, transparency, sustainability and collective benefit,” said Zaki Mamdoo, the #StopEACOP Coordinator told reporters at the summit.
“Africans should not have to suffer through another epoch of careless extraction and exploitation. We are here to assert the potential and need for Africa to lead the renewable energy revolution.”
“Projects such as EACOP continue to trap Africa in a cycle of need, want and fear. There is an urgent need to stop the project if we believe in human rights, development and climate justice in Africa,” said Bhekumuzi Dean Behebhe from the Don’t Gas Africa Campaign.
“We need a transformative, people-led process involving rapid social, economic, and institutional change to address the continent’s energy needs and the EACOP project undermines that.”
“Today, our brothers and sisters across South Africa stood as one with the communities in Uganda and Tanzania resisting EACOP’s destruction. Although we are divided by borders, we are united as Africans in demanding climate justice and an end to projects that only benefit elites while adversely impacting ordinary citizens across the continent,” Balach Bakundane, the Field Organizer for the African Institute for Energy Governance, a Kampala-based non-profit which is also a member of the #StopEACOP coalition.
“China must listen to our unified voices – EACOP contradicts its promises of friendship to Africa. True solidarity means stopping this pipeline from poisoning our shared future,” Bakundane said.
The #StopEACOP is an alliance of local groups, communities, and African and global organisations that are against the construction of the EACOP, a 1,443-kilometre electrically heated pipeline that is supposed to transport crude oil from mid-western Uganda near Hoima, to the port of Tanga in Tanzania.
The coalition has been campaigning for a stop to the proposed pipeline and associated oil fields at Tilenga and Kingfisher and it claims that its sustained campaign has contributed to the capitulation of Western financiers to pullout of funding the project.
The coalition says 27 major banks and 23 major (re)insurers have ruled out support for the pipeline. However, some financial institutions are yet to commit concerning funding EACOP including AIG, ICBC and Standard Bank. AEGIS London, Arch Capital Group Ltd and Britam Holdings recently announced they would not offer the project insurance coverage.
“The #StopEACOP campaign is gathering momentum, building pressure on the remaining supporters and financiers of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline,” the activists’ statement adds.
The climate activists, however, are not the only campaigners against one of Uganda’s four flagship oil projects. In July, this year, Human Rights Watch published a report calling upon financial institutions to avoid supporting EACOP due to the “devastating impacts of fossil fuels on climate change as well as future risks of serious human rights impacts.”
“Financial institutions considering funding EACOP should steer clear of this project and instead help Uganda embrace its significant energy potential,” Felix Horne, the senior environment researcher at Human Rights Watch said. However, despite what the activists say is sustained pressure against Uganda’s oil, project developments are ongoing in mid-western Uganda and the East African nation hopes to start oil production sometime in 2025.
