AFRICA
In Africa, Oil Change is supporting movement partners in challenging key proposed fossil fuel projects.
OVERVIEW OF WORK
In Africa, Oil Change is supporting movement partners in challenging key proposed fossil fuel projects and calling on African governments and institutions to stop fossil fuel expansion and support energy access and a just transition (see Addis Ababa communiqué).
Together with local partners, we’re working to shift energy financing away from fossil fuels and increase financing for distributed renewable energy to support the goal of providing universal access to all; increase public financing for distributed renewable energy that also ensures a higher degree of local ownership of solutions; expose the scale and source of financing for fossil fuel projects on the continent; support frontline groups in their efforts to resist harmful fossil fuel projects; and support and facilitate convenings for movement partners to support information, capacity sharing, and strategy development.
LATEST PROGRAM POSTS
The iconic giant baobab trees of Africa are dying. And we are most likely to blame
A senior Kenyan Diplomat is reported to have confirmed that a highly controversial coal plant will be built near Lamu, the UNESCO World Heritage Island off the northern Kenyan Coast, despite widespread international and local opposition.
Two U.S. initiatives to provide Africans with electricity seem likely to lead to large, climate-polluting projects rather than the locally sourced renewable energy rural Africa needs.
LATEST PROGRAM RESEARCH
The briefing reveals that new oil and gas production approved to date in 2022 and at risk of approval over the next three years could cumulatively lock in 70 billion tonnes (Gt) of new carbon pollution. This is equivalent to almost two years’ worth of global carbon emissions from energy at current levels, 17 percent of the world’s remaining 1.5°C carbon budget, or the lifecycle emissions of 468 coal power plants.
Between 2016, following the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement, and June 2021, public and private financial institutions poured at least $132 billion in lending and underwriting into 964 gas, oil and coal projects in West, East, Central and Southern Africa. The vast majority of this finance came from financial institutions based outside Africa, both commercial banks and public institutions such as development banks and Export Credit Agencies.
The Sky’s Limit Africa assesses fossil fuel industry plans to sink USD $230 billion into the development of new extraction projects in Africa in the next decade — and USD $1.4 trillion by 2050. It finds these projects are not compatible with a safe climate future and that they are at risk of becoming stranded assets that leave behind unfunded clean-up, shortfalls of government revenue, and overnight job losses.