CSOs Call For Transition From Fossil Fuels To Clean Energy In Ghana

Since the commencement of the oil and gas exploration in Ghana, the people of Ghana especially in the local communities in the coastal oil communities had little reason to believe that wealth from oil and gas brought anything but great prosperity. But the presumption of net benefits from fossil fuels is eroding as widening circles of people, rich and poor experience the downside. Notwithstanding, its major contribution to the climate impacts on communities.

Against the backdrop of an intensifying climate crisis, Abibiman Foundation in collaboration with Friends of the Earth Ghana and the Alliance for Empowering Rural Communities working with three other environmental organizations from Nigeria, Togo and Uganda, in cooperation with Milieudefensie and Both ENDS all in the Netherlands have released a report which reveals that since the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement, which was signed five years ago, and despite the undeniable urgency for countries around the world to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, rich countries through ECAs provided more than 80 times as much support to fossil fuels than to renewable energy (solar, wind and geothermal) in the four African countries that were studied under the report.

Available data from the report shows that only 1% of the total support to the energy sector consisted of support for renewable energy, in the form of solar projects. No ECA support for wind projects in the four African countries has been found.

Although many industrialized nations are advocating a switch to renewables at home, such support is not seen in their cooperation with developing countries. While they commit to phasing out fossil fuel energy domestically, these commitments are abandoned as soon as their companies move across international borders, where they continue to push dirty energy, and as such contribute to climate change.

Not in line with the Paris Climate Agreement

Export credit agencies provide insurances and guarantees to companies doing business abroad. "Despite international climate agreements and national climate ambitions, export credit agencies continue to support fossil energy projects abroad on a large scale," says Niels Hazekamp of Both ENDS. "This undermines the Paris Climate Targets. Export credit agencies hardly play a role in insuring green, sustainable projects. This report once again makes us wonder whether ECAs are able to make the changes that are urgently needed.”

Dependent on Fossil

By supporting the expansion of the fossil sector in these African countries, export credit agencies ensure that economies remain dependent on fossil fuels. "And that in a world that is increasingly switching to renewable energy," says Isabelle Geuskens of Milieudefensie. "Those countries risk ending up with huge debts and fossil infrastructure for decades to come, while in the future the demand for their oil and gas will decrease substantially. The Dutch export credit agency Atradius DSB already warns of the dangers of huge debts in African countries that are economically dependent on fossil fuels, but at the same time it contributes to this dependency by continuing to support fossil fuels in these countries.

People and Nature

Part of the research is based on reports from local communities that have been affected by the fossil energy projects. People have been evicted from their land or have seen the land and water they depend on becoming destroyed or polluted. They are hardly compensated for this, with many ending up living in poverty.

Beneconsila Busingye is a widow of 56. She had to move for the oil developments in Uganda, which were supported by UK ECA UKEF: "I first had to leave my land for the construction of the airport for the oil developments. Access to the land that we were given in compensation, was next cut off by the government because of the EACOP oil pipeline developments. After my husband died, the government did not want to compensate me. I never signed anything, yet all of a sudden I am no longer allowed to use my land. How can I feed my children now that my husband is dead?

Export Credit Agencies for A Green and Just Transition

With the report, the organisations want to raise some fundamental questions about the role of export credit agencies in supporting dirty energy in Africa. Hazekamp: "The vision that export credit agencies have of sustainability is highly questionable. Our research shows, for example, that since the signing of the Paris Agreement in December 2015, ECAs have supported the oil and gas sector in the four countries with an amount of 5.6 billion USD and large hydro projects with an amount of 5.3 billion USD.

The report calls on the governments of advanced nations to stop supporting fossil projects via their ECAs. We the environmental organisations also ask these governments to take a critical look at whether the energy projects supported by ECAs in the south are able to contribute to a just and green energy transition.

We also call upon our Ghanaian government to work with regional bodies to set up proper transparency, monitoring and compliance mechanisms to critically monitor all investments in the energy sector. Ensure international finance flows, such as those supported by ECAs, support a just energy transition instead of increased fossil dependency.

Read the report here: 'A Just Energy Transition for Africa? Mapping the impacts of ECAs active in the energy sector in Ghana, Nigeria, Togo and Uganda.