Uganda has hinted that it could ditch fossil fuel to pave the way for cleaner energy in future but countries in the West should be the first to take the lead.
Ali Sekatawa, the Director of Legal and Corporate Affairs at the Petroleum Authority of Uganda, accused countries in the Global North of pressuring Uganda to stop the ongoing East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline project yet many of their corporate companies continue to invest in fossil fuel projects.
“[In one of our] negotiations we are asking for the principle ‘first in first out’. We argue that if the world wants to move away from fossil fuel, the decision should not start with us who have just begun drilling oil,” he said in an interview at the COP28 in Dubai. “For example, the U.S. which began drilling oil in the 1800s should be the first to stop drilling oil, and then the rest should follow in that order. This decision should apply to every country that began digging oil many years ago to stop drilling oil first”.
Sekatawa also accused the West of hounding the developing nations to halt all oil drilling operations within their territories yet “many of them continue to dig even more and more oil and they don’t have plans to stop drilling [oil] anytime soon”.
Uganda has been under strong criticism from the #StopEACOP activists, a group of global climate advocates, for its continued construction of the controversial EACOP. As a result, western investors have backed out from financing the 1,443 km oil-heated pipeline, which will transport oil from Uganda’s oil fields to the port of Tanga in Tanzania, and scientists say the “carbon bomb” has the potential to pump up 35 million tonnes of carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
But Sekatawa said the EACOP will be a “low carbon emission project” operated by technology that “has been certified all over the world because they are less harmful to the environment”.
“We (Uganda) have also launched the energy transition plan which shows we are switching to green energy…by 2065, money generated from oil will be used to help ease our (Uganda) access to green energy”.
The COP28 climate summit closed on Wednesday where delegates described the outcome of the climate negotiations as the “beginning of the end” of the fossil fuel era after tense consultations and negotiations.
Whereas this bright spot was welcomed by delegates as they pushed for a swift and just transition to renewable energy to reach global net zero emissions by 2050, they expressed disappointment saying the language was watered down from phasing out fossil fuel to transitioning away from it.
Kenyan-based economist Fadhel Kaboub said using the language of “transitioning away from fossil fuel” instead of phasing it out completely “was the ultimate demonstration of the Global North hypocrisy”.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres sent a direct call to the opponents of fossil fuel phase-out in the COP28 text, saying “that a fossil fuel phase-out is inevitable whether they like it or not. Let’s hope it doesn’t come too late,”
On Tuesday, Uganda launched its first energy transition plan as a “roadmap…to sustainably develop its energy sector, meet its climate targets, deliver universal energy access and realise widespread economic benefits”
In her keynote speech, Energy Minister, Ruth Nankabirwa said the transition plan would require an investment of 70 million US dollars to fund.
“This Energy Transition Plan marks a huge step forward in our efforts to ensure every person in Uganda has access to secure, affordable and sustainable energy. The plan shows how Uganda’s major energy advantages can be leveraged responsibly to meet our Government’s broader objectives,” said Nankabirwa, Uganda’s.
This story was produced with assistance from MESHA and IDRC Eastern and Southern Africa Office for science journalists reporting on COP28.
