KAMPALA, Uganda (PAMACC News) - Over 70 Ugandan and Congolese civil society organisations (CSOs) as well as their partners are calling on the Ugandan government, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and TotalEnergies to prioritise the economic well-being of Ugandans, biodiversity conservation and climate action by investing in clean energy instead of climate-wrecking projects such as the Kingfisher, Tilenga and East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) ones.

The CSOs made the call today at a time when the launch of drilling for the Kingfisher oil project in Kikuube district is expected to take place. The Ugandan president, H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, is expected to officiate at the launch ceremony.

The Kingfisher project, which is operated by CNOOC (U) Ltd, will involve the drilling of 31 wells. The wells will be drilled within Lake Albert. Per Uganda’s Ministry of Energy, the deepest Kingfisher oil project well is 7km deep.

CNOOC (U) Ltd is working alongside its joint venture partners that include the Ugandan government and TotalEnergies. These partners also plan to develop the Tilenga and EACOP oil projects.

“Ugandans, East Africans and indeed all global citizens of goodwill should be concerned about the Kingfisher, Tilenga and EACOP oil projects. The projects are located in one of the last frontiers for biodiversity conservation -the Albertine Graben- in Uganda. The Graben is home to forests, 70% of Uganda’s national parks, major lakes such as Albert, River Nile and others.

These ecosystems and biodiversity support Uganda’s major economic activities such as agriculture, fishing, tourism and business. By endangering biodiversity therefore, the joint venture partners are risking the majority of Ugandans’ economic well-being,” Mr. Dickens Kamugisha, the CEO of Africa Institute for Energy Governance, says.

It should also be recalled that the world is faced with the climate change crisis characterised by unpredictable weather patterns, prolonged dry seasons, wetter-than-usual wet seasons and others in Uganda. The Kingfisher, Tilenga and EACOP oil projects will result in the production of millions of tonnes of carbon per year. They are also driving deforestation and forest degradation in Uganda’s Albertine Graben, actions that exacerbate climate change impacts.

“The climate crisis poses a major threat to Uganda’s main economic activities. In the Updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of September 2022, Uganda’s Ministry of Water and Environment identified ecosystems, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, business and other economic sectors as being the most at risk of climate change impacts.

The agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors employ 61.4% of Uganda’s labourforce, per the 2021 Uganda Labourforce Survey by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS).

With their Kingfisher, Tilenga and EACOP oil projects, CNOOC (U) Ltd, TotalEnergies and the Ugandan government are imperiling the livelihoods of the 61.4% of Uganda’s labourforce, not to mention their dependents that include children and youth,” Ms. Norah Luyiga, the Communications Officer of Youth for Green Communities (YGC), says. 

The drilling of wells under Lake Albert has also raised concerns amongst fishing communities.

“Fishing is a major economic activity where I come from in Buliisa. It is also important nationally as the sector directly and indirectly employs over 5 million people. However, the fishermen on Lake Albert have been complaining that the fish catch from the lake has been declining.

They say that an oil-induced population influx and poor fishing practices are to blame. They also say that Tullow Oil’s seismic blasting during the oil exploration phase negatively affected their fish catch. They are worried that oil drilling in Lake Albert will worsen their misfortunes,” Mr. Maxwell Atuhura of Tasha Africa Research says.

Ms. Irène Ngadriko Gombe of Forum Des Engages Pour Le Developpement Durable (FORED) from the DR Congo to which Lake Albert extends adds, “About 20,000 fishers in the DRC rely on Lake Albert to make a living. The lake is also a source of water for communities in DR Congo and Uganda.

We have seen more conflicts over fish between Congolese and Ugandan fishermen since commercial oil discoveries were made in Uganda. The Kingfisher project worries us therefore”.

The CSOs are calling on CNOOC, TotalEnergies and the Ugandan government to listen to their people and climate science by investing in clean renewable energy, which has the potential to create more jobs than the oil and gas sector.

NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - For a period of three months leading to the 27^th round of negotiations at the UN Conference of Parties on climate change, fossil fuel-linked entities spent close to $4 million on social media adverts, to promote key messages that belittled the fight against climate change, a new report has revealed.

 According to the report released on Thursday 19, the phrase ‘energy independence’ was most common and found verbatim in 1925 paid adverts on Meta’s Ad Library – a company that owns Facebook,  Instagram , Messenger and  WhatsApp among others, followed by ‘American energy’ (1558 adverts) between September and November when the UN climate summit took place in Egypt.

This came after the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report had warned that “vested interests had generated rhetoric and misinformation that undermines climate science and disregards risk and urgency.”

And now, the environment civil society and nongovernmental organisations particularly form Africa and Asia are even more worried because Sultan Al-Jaber, a pro fossil fuel enthusiast, who is the Chief Executive Officer for a globally leading Gas and Oil firm has already been appointed as the President-designate for the 28^th round of climate negotiations (COP 28).

“This is the textbook definition of impunity and conflict of interest. Addressing the climate crisis requires deep cuts in the production and use of fossil fuels. That course of action is squarely at variance with Al-Jaber’s business interests,” said Mithika Mwenda, the Executive Director of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA).

“You wouldn’t invite arm dealers to lead peace talks. So why let oil executives lead climate talks? Burning fossil fuels is the single largest cause of the climate crisis, and the single biggest threat to solving it,” said Alice Harrison, Fossil Fuels Campaign Leader at Global Witness – an international environmental non-governmental organisation.

Authors of the new report titled ‘Deny, Deceive, Delay’, which was spearheaded by the Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) are also faulting the social media providers for deliberately supporting climate misinformation and disinformation.

“During COP, Twitter’s search engine pushed #ClimateScam as a top result without any justification for the data behind it,” said Erika Seiber, climate disinformation spokesperson at Friends of the Earth U.S. “Until governments hold social media and ad companies accountable, and companies hold professional disinformers accountable, crucial conversations around the climate crisis are going to be put in jeopardy,” said Seiber, pointing out that Twitter should be held accountable to explain how the inexcusable climate denial trend came to be.

 During the climate negotiations, conspiracies surrounding the ‘Great Reset’ and ‘New World Order’ were rife, presenting climate action as part of a plot by ‘global elites’ to exert control and, conversely, claiming that climate change has been ‘engineered’ to destroy capitalism.

At the same time, the climate deniers framed negotiations around ‘Loss and Damage’ as an unfair transfer of wealth to the ‘developing world’, contrasting Loss and Damage to austerity measures and heating bills in the UK, where most high-traction attacks originated during the summit before spreading in the US and Australia. This content largely sidestepped any reference to climate impacts, instead focusing on the benefits of fossil fuels for ‘human flourishing’.

Another newer trend according to the report was ‘wokewashing’ – the adoption of ‘progressive’ rhetoric to oppose climate action. Such framing spanned a range of arguments, including that ‘green technologies’ such as Electric Vehicles are bad or even worse for the environment than fossil fuels, and that climate action constitutes a form of ‘Western Imperialism’ or ‘neo-colonialism’.

CAAD is now calling on the US government, EU, UN, IPCC and Big Tech companies to acknowledge the climate disinformation threat and take immediate steps to improve transparency and data access to quantify disinformation trends, to stop misleading fossil fuel advocacy in paid ad content, enforce policies against repeat offenders spreading disinformation on platforms, and to adopt a standardised and comprehensive definition of climate disinformation.

NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - For a period of three months leading to the 27^th round of negotiations at the UN Conference of Parties on climate change, fossil fuel-linked entities spent close to $4 million on social media adverts, to promote key messages that belittled the fight against climate change, a new report has revealed.

 According to the report released on Thursday 19, the phrase ‘energy independence’ was most common and found verbatim in 1925 paid adverts on Meta’s Ad Library – a company that owns Facebook,  Instagram , Messenger and  WhatsApp among others, followed by ‘American energy’ (1558 adverts) between September and November when the UN climate summit took place in Egypt.

This came after the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report had warned that “vested interests had generated rhetoric and misinformation that undermines climate science and disregards risk and urgency.”

And now, the environment civil society and nongovernmental organisations particularly form Africa and Asia are even more worried because Sultan Al-Jaber, a pro fossil fuel enthusiast, who is the Chief Executive Officer for a globally leading Gas and Oil firm has already been appointed as the President-designate for the 28^th round of climate negotiations (COP 28).

“This is the textbook definition of impunity and conflict of interest. Addressing the climate crisis requires deep cuts in the production and use of fossil fuels. That course of action is squarely at variance with Al-Jaber’s business interests,” said Mithika Mwenda, the Executive Director of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA).

“You wouldn’t invite arm dealers to lead peace talks. So why let oil executives lead climate talks? Burning fossil fuels is the single largest cause of the climate crisis, and the single biggest threat to solving it,” said Alice Harrison, Fossil Fuels Campaign Leader at Global Witness – an international environmental non-governmental organisation.

Authors of the new report titled ‘Deny, Deceive, Delay’, which was spearheaded by the Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) are also faulting the social media providers for deliberately supporting climate misinformation and disinformation.

“During COP, Twitter’s search engine pushed #ClimateScam as a top result without any justification for the data behind it,” said Erika Seiber, climate disinformation spokesperson at Friends of the Earth U.S. “Until governments hold social media and ad companies accountable, and companies hold professional disinformers accountable, crucial conversations around the climate crisis are going to be put in jeopardy,” said Seiber, pointing out that Twitter should be held accountable to explain how the inexcusable climate denial trend came to be.

 During the climate negotiations, conspiracies surrounding the ‘Great Reset’ and ‘New World Order’ were rife, presenting climate action as part of a plot by ‘global elites’ to exert control and, conversely, claiming that climate change has been ‘engineered’ to destroy capitalism.

At the same time, the climate deniers framed negotiations around ‘Loss and Damage’ as an unfair transfer of wealth to the ‘developing world’, contrasting Loss and Damage to austerity measures and heating bills in the UK, where most high-traction attacks originated during the summit before spreading in the US and Australia. This content largely sidestepped any reference to climate impacts, instead focusing on the benefits of fossil fuels for ‘human flourishing’.

Another newer trend according to the report was ‘wokewashing’ – the adoption of ‘progressive’ rhetoric to oppose climate action. Such framing spanned a range of arguments, including that ‘green technologies’ such as Electric Vehicles are bad or even worse for the environment than fossil fuels, and that climate action constitutes a form of ‘Western Imperialism’ or ‘neo-colonialism’.

CAAD is now calling on the US government, EU, UN, IPCC and Big Tech companies to acknowledge the climate disinformation threat and take immediate steps to improve transparency and data access to quantify disinformation trends, to stop misleading fossil fuel advocacy in paid ad content, enforce policies against repeat offenders spreading disinformation on platforms, and to adopt a standardised and comprehensive definition of climate disinformation.

NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC ) - Ahead of the annual gathering of world leaders in Davos next week, Alvaro Lario, President of the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), warns of the urgent need to invest at speed and scale in long-term rural development to prevent recurring food crises and end hunger and poverty.

“We cannot continue to go from food crisis to food crisis. We should not have to see countries experiencing acute food insecurity over and over again. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. We must take immediate and concrete actions to strengthen our failing food systems - this requires strong commitment and bold investment,” said Lario.

At Davos, Lario will be calling for a massive scale-up of investments in agriculture, and long-term rural development from governments, investors and private companies with the view to ensure nutritional security and food sovereignty, an issue that has become critical for developing countries. At least an additional US$30 billion per year in investments are needed according to pre-COVID19 estimates, now the costs are even higher.

“Only long-term investments in rural economies can provide long-lasting solutions to hunger, under-nutrition and poverty. This is what will enable small-scale farmers to increase local production, better adapt to climate change, build short and local food chains, build and sustain local markets and commercial opportunities, and create small rural businesses. This approach makes a lot of economic sense,” said the IFAD President.

According to World Bank research, growth in agriculture is two to four times more effective at reducing poverty than growth in other sectors.

Today, the world is experiencing an unprecedented food crisis due to the convergence of high food, energy and fertilizer prices linked to the war in Ukraine, and several climate shocks. Key drivers of hunger remain conflict, climate change and the economic slowdown and difficult recovery in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The number of people facing acute food insecurity soared - from 135 million in 2019 to 345 million in 2022. Currently, a total of 49 million people in 49 countries live on the edge of famine. One person in ten - about 828 million people - are currently suffering from hunger defined as chronic undernourishment. In addition, almost 3.1 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet. Increasingly world food consumption is concentrated on three main crops (wheat, maize and rice). An estimated 45 million children suffer from acute malnutrition, 149 million children have stunted growth and development due to a chronic lack of essential nutrients in their diet, while 39 million are overweight.

Despite global commitments to end hunger by 2030, donor support for agriculture has been stagnant at just 4 percent of total ODA for at least two decades. About 3 billion people live in the rural areas of developing countries and they rely to a significant extent on small-scale farming for their food and livelihoods.

In the years to come, extreme weather events will likely increase in frequency and magnitude, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Global food systems are at increased risk of disruption, with potential supply shortages and price hikes.

As the world becomes more fragile, building food sovereignty and security by strengthening local resilience, ensuring local production and well-functioning markets will become increasingly vital. Part of the solution also lies in supporting indigenous cropping systems, agro-ecology and reducing food waste and loss which represents about one third of the food produced today. 

“We should not wait another minute to invest in rural areas. With climate change accelerating, we have a very narrow window of opportunity to help rural populations adapt, and continue to produce the food that they and their communities need to survive - which in turn is key to global health and stability,” said Lario.

Research shows that future crop yields could decline by up to a quarter by the end of the century with extreme weather events increasing in regularity and intensity. Also more than 35 per cent of the global cropland used to grow wheat and rice could be subject to damaging hot spells by 2050.

Small-scale farmers who produce one third of the world’s food receive less than 2 percent of global climate finance.