Energy scramble for Africa: Fossil fuel extraction is rising but there’s little progress in renewables

Fossil fuel extraction by the West on the resource-rich continent of Africa has been a contentious issue on global platforms. Civil society organisations, educational institutes and the local communities were vocal at the recently concluded 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Dubai, United Arab Emirates about stopping exploitation by fossil fuel companies. 

The continuous operations and large-scale projects by the fossil fuel companies in various countries spread all over the continent have been met with a lot of resistance from local communities, civil societies and environmental activities and pose significant threats to the ecosystem.

Discussions between experts at COP28 revealed that oil and gas extraction projects provide little to no economic or social benefits to society. Speakers at a Greenpeace COP28 side event on fossil fuel extraction in Africa noted that most of these projects bring their own company’s personnel to work on the sites and local communities are provided only a limited number of job opportunities or social welfare. 

Moreover, they become a recipe for social neglect, leading to the displacement of communities and their needs and demands are often overlooked. For instance, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) poses disastrous consequences as it is planned to pass through sensitive biodiversity hotspots, risks degrading several natural reserves and displaces thousands of families, primarily in the Central and Eastern African regions. 

Read more: Okavango, Murchison Falls: Big Oil closing in on two iconic African Edens, flags report

EACOP will transport oil produced from Uganda’s Lake Albert oilfields to the port of Tanga in Tanzania, from where it will be further shipped and sold to the rest of the world. Once constructed, it will be one of the world’s longest heated oil pipelines, spanning 1,443 kilometres. The project is headed by the French multinational giant TotalEnergies and China’s largest offshore oil and gas producer China National Offshore Oil Corporation Group. 

National government-owned petroleum companies of Uganda (Uganda National Oil Company) and Tanzania (Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation) are other major shareholders in the project. 

The pipeline is marked with resistance — social groups, activists and communities are being jailed in Uganda and social and cultural violence persists against the actual stakeholders, noted Zaki Mamdoo from StopEACOP campaign at the Greenpeace side-event at COP28. He further explained that the extraction is neo-colonial in many ways, as it employs methods of bribery, corruption, political favours and profit taking precedence over everything else. 

“We should have projects that align with the development of people, collective benefit and justice. A true development partner must not exercise power and dominance; rather, they should be an equal partner who puts into centre the experiences and aspirations of African communities. These projects should be decentralised, decolonised and socially owned,” Mamdoo said during the event. 

To put things into perspective, Africa is a resource-rich continent and has more potential for renewables than the rest of the world. According to United Nations Climate Summit data, the continent is home to 40 per cent of the world’s renewable energy (RE) potential and 60 per cent of the world’s best solar resources. But this potential is yet to be unlocked due to misguided priorities and underinvestment in the energy sector. 

While North African countries have close to universal access to energy, the total power generation capacity of 48 sub-Saharan African countries amounted to 45 GW in 2021, which is less than that of Spain, according to Just Transition Africa Report 2023. Moreover, 600 million people — about 43 per cent of Africans — still live without energy access.

Africa has 40 per cent of world’s RE potential and 60 per cent of world’s best solar resources, according to UN climate data. Source: Just Transition Africa Report

RES4Africa Foundation’s 2023 report on Africa’s energy future reveals that in 2000-2020, the continent received only 2 per cent of the total ($2.8 trillion) global RE investments. Meanwhile, fossil fuel producers continue to invest in new projects — as of 2022, more than 200 fossil fuel companies have been developing or exploring new reserves in 48 out of 55 African countries. 

A total of 886,000 square kms, an area larger than France and Italy combined, have been licenced for new oil and gas exploration since 2017 in Africa. It is surprising as to why only a small share is being invested in African countries, which have one of the highest RE potentials in the world. 

Germany, for instance, pledged in November 2023 to support the energy transition in Africa by investing $4 billion in the continent’s green energy projects until 2030. But at the same time, they are also exploring gas deals with Nigeria and Senegal. These oil and gas investments are export driven and not for African people, noted Kerstin Opfer, policy advisor at nonprofit Germanwatch, during the Greenpeace side event.

“This investment by Germany can be seen in the background of rising demand for low-carbon products in Europe, which need cleaner alternative fuels such as green hydrogen, which requires RE for generation. European countries, including Germany, are looking to Africa to produce renewable energy, green fuels and even intermediaries of green products as their manufacturing sector shifts to green production,” said Parth Kumar, programme manager, industry unit at Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment. 

“One needs to look out that any such projects are equitable in nature and benefit the African community and their energy security,” he added. “It should not turn out into Africa producing low-value intermediary products using its own resources, which are then shipped to Europe to be converted into high-value finished products. Further, these finished products might even end up back in African or other developing country markets at high prices; these practises need to change.”

On being asked if there are any friends, the panellists unanimously agreed that these countries and companies that are extracting fossil fuels have a history of exploitation on the continent and do not work to benefit the African people. They noted that China and Russia are also huge investors, apart from the United States and European Union countries. Moreover, the speakers underlined that their own leaders fail to represent the interests of our people. 

Lorraine Chiponda, an activist from the Don’t Gas Africa campaign centred against gas exploration in Mozambique, said, “Africa, Mozambique, is not Europe’s gas filling station”.

Ahead of COP28, 50 African scientists had urged African heads of state to act on the climate crisis in a call-to-action letter. “The fossil fuels companies in different countries, including Total in Mozambique and Uganda, Woodside and BP in Senegal, Shell in Nigeria and others, have not modernised our economies or invested in clean energy sources for the benefit of Africa’s youth but locked us in old and dirty systems for the benefit of the few,” it read.  

The scientific community had asked heads of state to accelerate the phaseout of costly and destructive fossil fuels; end the scramble for oil and gas extraction in Africa; make polluters pay and prevent loss of biodiversity in ecosystems and reject diversions such as carbon credit markets as key demands for just and equitable energy transition.

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