October, 14 2021, 11:23am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Aneesa Khan, aneesa@priceofoil.org
Bronwen Tucker, bronwen@priceofoil.org
Â
Report: USD 1.4 Trillion Fossil Fuel Buildout Jeopardizes Africa's Economies, Climate, and Communities
Analysis details why a just energy transition in Africa requires an end to new oil, gas, and coal extraction projects.
WASHINGTON
A new report released today assesses fossil fuel industry plans to sink USD 230 billion into the development of new oil and gas production in Africa in the next decade. These reach $1.4 trillion by 2050. It finds these projects are not compatible with a safe climate future and are at risk of becoming stranded assets.
The report, The Sky's Limit Africa: The case for a just energy transition from fossil fuel production in Africa, was researched by Oil Change International (OCI) and released in partnership with Oilwatch Africa, Africa Coal Network, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), 350Africa, WoMin African Alliance and the Center for International Environmental Law.
The analysis reveals 71% of the new oil and gas production planned in Africa in the next three decades would come from relatively costly modes of production or countries without an established industry. These factors increase the risk that new projects will become stranded, creating shortfalls of funding for cleaning up environmental damages, overnight job losses, and gaps in government revenues.
These conclusions follow bombshell reports this year from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which found that new oil and gas fields and coal mines are incompatible with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and that governments must pursue a much more rapid phase-out of fossil fuels.
As Thuli Makama, Oil Change International's Africa Director and Global South Advisor stated, "An equitable, managed phase-out of fossil fuel production provides a much brighter pathway for Africa than allowing new decades-long fossil fuel extraction projects to go forward. This does not mean stopping production overnight, but rather, planning ahead to ensure there is time and resources for clean-up and for a just transition for impacted workers and communities."
The new report also looks at the local impacts of the fossil fuel industry to find that it has hurt jobs, health, and the environment while failing to deliver on economic promises. The authors argue industry is even less equipped to yield public benefits now that it faces global headwinds. They show 66% of projected new oil and gas production in Africa will be owned by overseas corporations and that renewable energy and other green economy sectors already provide 2 to 25 times as many jobs per dollar spent.
"It is a myth that fossil fuels equal development," said Nnimmo Bassey, Environmentalist and Director of HOMEF, "Both the physical resources and the profits from these projects have overwhelmingly flowed out of Africa rather than addressing energy poverty on the continent. Meanwhile, pollution is the daily reality of our peoples and criminally harms nearby waterways, bodies, soils, and the air. As the fossil fuel industry gets more desperate to stay afloat in the face of unprecedented resistance to their business plans, these impacts on frontline communities risk becoming even worse. They must stop!"
The report authors call on governments in wealthy countries to move first and fastest in phasing out fossil fuel production and dramatically scale up their climate finance and debt cancellation to support just transitions in Africa and globally. However, given the escalating systemic risks to economy, climate, and development associated with new fossil fuel projects, they also recommend governments in Africa stop licensing and approvals for new oil, gas, and coal projects now, regardless of how other countries act. For countries with an established industry, authors recommend governments develop plans now for a gradual and managed phase-out of already-built fossil fuel extraction projects by 2050 at the latest, alongside just transition measures for workers and communities.
Quotes:
Charity Migwi, Africa Regional Campaigner at 350.org: "The time has come for no new fossil fuel extraction projects to be approved - in Africa or anywhere. If fossil fuel expansion in Africa continues it will not only bring devastating climate impacts but risk delaying or locking out the development of renewable energy and other green economy sectors."
Anabela Lemos, Director of Justica Ambiental! (Friends of the Earth Mozambique): "Total came to Mozambique with promises of a better life for the people, but what they actually did was grab lands from the peasant communities, grab access to the sea from the fisherfolk and destroy these livelihoods and drive our country towards militarisation and conflict. What was once a beautiful and peaceful community, with land, water and sea, today they are refugees with nothing. Once they were a proud community, now they are surviving based on external aid. Human rights abuses are a norm, they do not trust anyone, they live in fear, with no hopes for their future. That was the reality of Total and fossil fuels corporations."
Dickens Kamugisha, Chief Executive Officer of Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO): "2020 and 2021 have so far provided a snapshot of what an unmanaged decline could look like in the oil and gas sector globally. Market shocks from COVID-19 and the oil price crash hit showed how unstable the oil and gas industry could get. Instead of doubling down on fossil fuel projects like the East African Crude Oil Pipeline that will lock poor countries into the fossil fuel economy, this is the time to build an energy system and green economy that is local, equitable, and democratic."
Oil Change International is a research, communications, and advocacy organization focused on exposing the true costs of fossil fuels and facilitating the ongoing transition to clean energy.
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Russia's Putin Secures Another Term
The controversial leader won a record number of votes for a post-Soviet candidate even as opponents organized a protest at noon on the election's third and last day.
Mar 17, 2024
Despite protests on Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin won reelection with more votes than any candidate since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Exit poll the Public Opinion Foundation (POF) put the final tally after three days of voting at 87.8%, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) at 87%, and Russia's Central Election Commission (CEC) at 87.3%. Putin will now serve another six-year term, meaning he will have been at the helm of the Russian state for longer than any leader since Catherine the Great, surpassing Josef Stalin.
The election comes less than a month after the second anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and is likely to lead to more tensions between the Russian and U.S. governments.
"It gives me some hope to see how many people are not happy with the dictatorship, the war, with what's happening in Russia."
"For a U.S. administration that hoped Putin's Ukraine adventure would be wrapped up by now with a decisive setback to Moscow's interests, the election is a reminder that Putin expects that there will be many more rounds in the geopolitical boxing ring," Nikolas Gvosdev, director of the National Security Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told the Russia Matters project.
With most of Putin's prominent opponents either dead, imprisoned, or in exile, the elections results were considered a foregone conclusion by both friends and foes of his administration.
A Putin spokesperson said in 2023 that the election was "not really democracy" but instead "costly bureaucracy," according to CNN. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said the election was "obviously not free nor fair."
However, Russian opponents of Putin did find a way to demonstrate their position with a protest called "Noon Against Putin." The protest was called for by St. Petersburg politician Maxim Reznik, according to The Guardian. Participants were instructed to head to a polling place at noon and cast a paper ballot for one of the candidates running against Putin, or to write-in another candidate or spoil their ballot.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny had endorsed the protest before his death last month in a Russian prison, leading the Independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper to dub it "Navalny's political testament."
The action drew crowds to polling places both in Russian cities like Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Yekaterinburg and at Russian embassies around the world.
"This is the first time in my life I have ever seen a queue for elections," one woman waiting in line in Moscow told
CNN. Russian journalists reported that the lines at some stations within the country reached the thousands, according to Reuters.
Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, who had also endorsed the protest, voted at the embassy in Berlin, while several protesters gathered outside the embassy in London.
"I expected there to be a lot of people, but not this many," London-based participant Maria Dorofeyeva told The Guardian, adding, "It gives me some hope to see how many people are not happy with the dictatorship, the war, with what's happening in Russia. And we want to stop it."
Ruslan Shaveddinov of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation told Reuters:
"We showed ourselves, all of Russia and the whole world that Putin is not Russia (and) that Putin has seized power in Russia."
"Our victory is that we, the people, defeated fear, we defeated solitude—many people saw they were not alone," Shaveddinov said
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Sen Van Hollen Says Netanyahu Spreading 'Flat Out Lies' About UNRWA
The Maryland senator defended the organization on CBS and said there was no evidence that it was a "proxy for Hamas."
Mar 17, 2024
U.S. Senator for Maryland Chris Van Hollen continued his defense of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and its work in Gaza in an appearance on CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday.
"The claim that Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and others are making that somehow UNRWA is a proxy for Hamas are just flat out lies, that's a flat out lie," he told journalist Margaret Brennan.
The U.S. was one of many Western countries that paused funding for UNRWA after the agency announced in January that it had fired 12 staffers over Israeli allegations that they had been involved in Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel. However, some countries including Canada, Sweden, the European Union, and Australia have since restored funding. A report has also emerged that Israel tortured UNRWA staffers into falsely confessing to involvement in the Hamas attack.
"Netanyahu has wanted to get rid of UNRWA because he had seen them as a means to continue the hopes of the Palestinian people for a homeland of their own."
Van Hollen's remarks on Sunday come days after he argued for the restoration of UNRWA funds on the floor of the U.S. Senate and criticized Republican legislators who wanted to permanently end funds for the organization that supports some 6 million Palestinian refugees in countries across the Middle East, including around 2 million in Gaza.
During his speech, he pointed out that the Netanyahu government had not shared the underlying evidence that UNRWA staffers participated in October 7 with either UNRWA itself or the U.S. government. He also urged his colleagues to read a classified Director of National Intelligence report on Netanyahu's claims of UNRWA complicity with Hamas.
On "Face the Nation," Van Hollen said that the person in charge of operations on the ground in UNRWA was a 20-year U.S. Army veteran.
"You can be sure he is not in cahoots with Hamas," the senator told Brennan.
He also repeated claims that Netanyahu has wanted to eliminate UNRWA entirely since at least 2017.
"Netanyahu has wanted to get rid of UNRWA because he had seen them as a means to continue the hopes of the Palestinian people for a homeland of their own," Van Hollen said, adding that the right-wing Israeli leader's "primary objective" was preventing the formation of a Palestinian state.
However, the dismantling of UNRWA would be especially catastrophic amid Israel's ongoing bombardment and invasion of Gaza, which has killed more than 31,000 people and put the survivors at risk of famine. No other organization has the infrastructure in place to distribute the necessary aid.
"If you cut off funding for UNRWA in Gaza entirely, it means more people will starve, more people won't get the medial assistance they need, and so it would be a huge mistake," Van Hollen said.
He also said that only 14 of the agency's 13,000-strong staff in Gaza had been accused of participating in the October 7 attack.
"We should investigate it, we should hold all those people accountable, but for goodness' sake, let's not hold 2 million innocent Palestinian civilians who are dying of starvation... accountable for the bad acts of 14 people."
Van Hollen also repeated his call for President Joe Biden to condition the sale of offensive military weapons to Israel on the country obeying international law and allowing aid into Gaza. While Israel sent the U.S. a letter saying it was in compliance with the law, "the day it was signed, clearly the Netanyahu government is not in compliance, because we see that they're continuing to restrict humanitarian assistance," he told Brennan.
Also on "Face the Nation" Sunday, United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Chief Executive Catherine Russell described the impact that a lack of aid was having on the children of Gaza.
"We know now that children are dying of malnutrition in Gaza," she told Brennan.
Russell said that not enough aid was reaching those who needed it, calling both air drops and sea deliveries "a drop in the bucket."
She also called for greater transparency into what was actually happening in Gaza and the difficulties of delivering aid.
"The world should be able to see what's happening and make their own judgments about what's going on," Russell said.
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Gore Calls Out Fossil Fuel Industry 'Shamelessness' in Lying to Public
"They are continuing to do similar things today to try to fool people and pull the wool over people's eyes just in the name of greed," the former vice president said.
Mar 17, 2024
In reflecting on nearly 50 years of climate advocacy, former Vice President Al Gore said that he had "underestimated" the greed of the fossil fuel industry.
The remarks came in an interview published in USA Today on Sunday. When asked if he had any regrets, Gore responded that he had "put every ounce of energy" he had into climate advocacy, but added:
"I was pretty slow to recognize how important the massive funding of anti-climate messaging was going on. I underestimated the power of greed in the fossil fuel industry, the shamelessness in putting out the lies."
"They are continuing to do similar things today to try to fool people and pull the wool over people's eyes just in the name of greed," Gore continued.
"What's at stake is so incredible."
Gore, who tried to raise awareness about the climate crisis in the U.S. House of Representatives as early as 1981 and brought the issue to national attention in 2006's documentary An Inconvenient Truth, has taken a harsher tone against oil, gas, and coal companies in recent months. In August 2023, he said that the "climate crisis is a fossil fuel crisis," and in September, he implored the industry to "get out of the way." In December, he lamented that the industry had "captured the COP process," referring to the appointment of the United Arab Emirates national oil company CEO Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber to preside over the United Nations' COP28 climate conference in that country.
In the USA Today interview, Gore also named the fossil fuel industry when asked about his greatest frustration.
"Well, that we haven't made more progress," Gore answered, "and that some of the fossil fuel companies have been shameless in providing, continuing to provide lavish funding for disinformation and misinformation."
"What's at stake is so incredible," he added.
However, Gore told USA Today that he tried not to focus on his anger, but instead on continuing to raise awareness about the crisis and what can be done about it. And he remained hopeful that his grandchildren would live in a world in which people had come together and acted in time.
"We've got all the solutions we need right now to cut emissions in half before the end of this decade," he said. "We've got a clear line of sight to how we can cut the other 50% of emissions by mid century."
He also encouraged more people to get involved with the climate movement.
"I would say the greatest need is for more grassroots advocates because the most persuasive advocates are those in your own community," he said.
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