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

When President Joe Biden signed his first set of Executive Orders on Climate Change and cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline project soon after his inauguration, he sent a very clear message to the global fossil fuel industry: it’s no longer going to be business-as-usual with fighting the existential threat that climate change poses to humanity.

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.

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