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Leave the oil in the soil ; leave the coal in the hole

D 28 novembre 2013     H 05:51     A     C 0 messages


Dear President Obama,

We are African organizations working for the realization of a healthy and just environment for the people of our countries. We believe that every person has the right to a dignified life of quality on a livable planet. The climate crisis - brought on by developed countries - poses a monumental threat to this basic human right.

It is with this in mind that we write to you concerning the Power Africa initiative, as well as congressional legislation apparently meant to operationalize your initiative, including the Electrify Africa Act of 2013. Like you, we feel a great sense of urgency to address the pervasive energy poverty found in most African countries. It is shameful that in 2013, more than two-thirds of sub-Saharan Africa’s population lacks electricity, with that number growing to more than 85 per cent in rural areas.

We are therefore working hard to bring decentralized, truly clean, community-controlled renewable energy to all of our people. We do not need to poison communities in Africa in order to develop sustainably. Consequently, we reject any further extraction and exploitation of fossil fuels, including natural gas, oil, coal, and unconventional fossil fuels. These dirty fuel projects cause devastating impacts on local health, communities, and the environment. We similarly reject large hydropower projects, and other ‘false solutions’ such as carbon trading and offsetting. Smaller scale solar, wind, and geothermal, and mini-hydro, can provide us with sustainable lives and livelihoods without sinking our health along with that of the continent and the planet.

When we read statements from the White House about “new discoveries of vast reserves of oil and gas”, and that “The recent discoveries of oil and gas in sub-Saharan Africa will play a critical role in defining the region’s prospects for economic growth and stability, as well as contributing to broader near-term global energy security”1 - our response is to say, “Leave the oil in the soil ; leave the coal in the hole”.

It is simply impossible to continue to exploit fossil fuels if we want to avoid climate catastrophe. And we want to avoid climate catastrophe. So do you. Climate change is already having a heightened impact in Africa, with increasing temperatures, more floods and droughts, and failing agriculture, which is increasing conflict and threatening the lives and livelihoods of many millions.

Furthermore, we know from many decades of direct experience that the World Bank-driven development model pushing large-scale infrastructure and power projects rarely, if ever, alleviates poverty. Instead, such projects exacerbate inequality and conflict, devastate the environment, and frequently involve human rights violations (i.e. the well-documented “resource curse”). These projects do not help us at home but rather are for export and to line the pockets of multinational corporations and local elites.

But even more troubling is how African poverty has historically been used to line the pockets of U.S.
corporations and “experts”. Much of the money given as “aid” to African and other countries actually returns right back to the “experts” and consultants of donor countries2. It thus troubles us tremendously
that Power Africa has been advertised to U.S. audiences as an initiative to benefit U.S. corporations. For example, upon Power Africa’s launch, Forbes3 wrote that it “greases billions in deals for General
Electric”, saying the firm is “perhaps the biggest beneficiary” of the initiative, noting the U.S. Export-
Import Bank’s4 central role in financing its ambitions in the region. Indeed, the chair of the Export-
Import Bank was quite frank about this over Twitter, referring to Power Africa as a “$7B plan to power
up @General Electric”, and he
posted a picture of President Obama’s speech on the initiative in Tanzania with a GE logo more than twice the size of the presidential seal.

We therefore urge you to re-think any support for large scale power and infrastructure projects in the name of increasing energy access for Africa. We know that this hasn’t worked in the past, and it won’t work now. What will work are small-scale, decentralized, community-owned renewable energy initiatives throughout the African countryside and cities. Even the International Energy Agency has said as much. Its 2010 World Energy Outlook found that for universal energy access to occur by 2030, 70 per cent of rural populations will need to be served by decentralized renewable energy, and that electrification strategies should focus heavily on decentralized renewable energy systems, such as small-scale, democratically controlled wind, solar and microhydro co-operatives which meet local needs and end peoples’ reliance on the corporate-controlled energy system. Advances in distributed renewable energy in recent years have made this technology more cost effective than outmoded grid extension from centralized fossil fuel projects ; much like cheaper mobile phone technology has made extension of phone lines obsolete. When the externalized cost of fossil fuel projects is factored in — including the cost of harmful health impacts, loss of land, environmental and agricultural damage, and conflicts — distributed renewable energy solutions become even more cost effective than fossil fuel projects.

Unfortunately, to our dismay, we have learned that fossil fuel companies, the ONE Campaign, and even some in the Obama administration are using Power Africa and the Electrify Africa Act to try to weaken crucial gains in U.S. development financing at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). OPIC’s landmark climate and development policy, which is already having a positive effect in directing the agency’s portfolio toward renewable energy, requires the agency to reduce its fossil fuel financing and increase its renewable energy financing, bringing cleaner energy access to the poor. OPIC’s cap on greenhouse gas emissions must not be tampered with, most certainly not in the false name of supplying power to Africa’s poor. Weakening this policy will mean more polluting energy for Africa. What’s more, it may result in increased numbers of large centralized fossil fuel power projects that serve industrial customers but do not increase energy access for the poor, particularly in rural areas.

We thank you for your attention to these most important matters as we all move boldly toward sustainable livelihoods in the face of the climate crisis.

Sincerely,

 Abibiman Foundation, Ghana
 ADEID, Cameroun
 African Alliance for Rangeland Management and Development, Kenya
 African Biodiversity Network, Kenya
 African Biosafety Centre, South Africa
 African Research Association managing Development in Nigeria
 AME, Cameroun
 Association Nigérienne des Scouts de l’Environnement, Niger
 ATTAC Burkina, Burkina Faso
 Caravane D’Animation Culturelle Pour Le Development Durably, DRC
 Center for Secured Health and Environmental Development Initiatives, Nigeria
 Centre for 21st Century Issues, Nigeria
 Centre for Civil Society, South Africa
 CIKOD, Ghana
 Climate Change Network Nigeria
 Committee on Vital Environmental Resources, Nigeria
 Daughters of Mumbi Global Resource Center, Kenya
 Direction Générle des Forêts et des Ressources Naturelles, Bénin
 Earth Peoples, Africa
 Earthlife Africa Durban, South Africa
 Earthlife Africa Jhb, South Africa
 Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria
 Friends of Lake Turkana, Kenya
 Friends of the Earth Africa
 Friends of the Earth Ghana
 Greater Middelburg Resident’s Association, South Africa
 Greenpeace Africa
 groundWork, Friends of the Earth, South Africa
 Growing Power NPC, South Africa
 Health of Mother Earth, Nigeria
 Host Community Network Gwagwalada-Abuja, Nigeria
 Host Community Network Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria
 Host Community Network Chika-Lugbe, Nigeria
 Host community Network Karimo, Nigeria
 Host Community Network Mape, Nigeria
 Institute for Sustainable Development, Ethiopia
 Irrigation Training and Economic Empowerment Organization – IRTECO, -Tanzania
 Jamaa Resource Initiatives, Kenya
 Jeunes volontaires pour l’Environnement de la RDC (JVE-RDC), DRC
 JFE, Cameeroon
 Johannesburg Anglican Environmental Initiative, South Africa
 Justiça Ambiental/ Friends of the Earth Mozambique
 Kenya Debt Relief Network – KENDREN, Kenya

Notes :

1 The White House Fact Sheet : Power Africa, 30 June, 2013, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/06/30/fact-sheet-power-africa.

2 Timothy Mitchell. Rule of Experts : Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity, University of California press, 2002

3 See http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2013/07/01/with-power-africa-plan-obama-to-grease-billions-in-deals-for-g-e/.

4 We note that the U.S. Export-Import Bank has gained notoriety for its skyrocketing financing of fossil fuels, including the 4800 MW Kusile power project in South Africa, which is exacerbating energy poverty and causing tremendous local and climate pollution. Indeed, we vociferously protested the Export-Import Bank’s financing of Kusile.