Despite important progress on establishing a loss and damage fund, COP27 failed to acknowledge the need for a rapid and equitable phase-out of oil, gas, and coal.
Africa
Investing in Disaster: Recent and Anticipated Final Investment Decisions for New Oil And Gas Production Beyond the 1.5°C Limit
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.
COP27: Civil Society says “Don’t Gas Africa” and calls for an end of colonial fossil fuel extraction
At a series of events today at the COP27 climate talks, speaker after speaker warned against the Dash for Gas in Africa. One speaker, Mohamed Adow, from PowerShiftAfrica, said: “Africa sits at a crossroads & there is a fight to decide its energy & development future playing out at #COP27. A cabal of fossil fuel companies supported by foreign nations are trying to push Africa into a fossil fuel led development future. We say to them Don’t Gas Africa.”
“We’re not in an energy crisis, we’re in a fossil fuel crisis” — advocates discuss fossil fuels at onset of COP27
“Make no mistake — the fossil gas agenda is a neocolonial agenda and patriarchal one. Fossil gas will not provide ‘energy security’ in Africa or anywhere else.” –Lorraine Chiponda
Response: International Energy Agency understates gas expansion risks for African communities, jobs, and climate
Today, the International Energy Agency (IEA) released a new special report on Africa. The 2022 Africa Energy Outlook suggests a potential to increase gas production on the continent to 2030 even in a “sustainable” scenario.
Climate Advocates: The EU’s International Energy Strategy Is a Reckless Response to a Global Crisis
“The EU’s new international energy strategy is woefully inadequate and would lock in decades’ more extraction of deadly gas and oil,” said Collin Rees.
Locked Out of a Just Transition: Fossil Fuel Financing in Africa
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.
New Report: At least $132 billion in finance for fossil fuels is locking Africa out of a Just Transition
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 finance institutions like development banks and export credit agencies.
The Sky’s Limit Africa: The Case for a Just Energy Transition from Fossil Fuel Production in Africa
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.
Report: USD 1.4 trillion fossil fuel buildout jeopardizes Africa’s economies, climate, and communities
New analysis details why a just energy transition in Africa requires an end to new oil, gas, and coal extraction projects