The webinar “Defusing Carbon Bombs in Africa” was part of the webinar series “Towards Defusing Global Carbon Bombs”, which was organized in collaboration between the Climate Action Network International (CAN), the Leave It In The Ground Initiative (LINGO), and regional partners, and it took place on April 18, 2023.

This session covered the importance of identifying and defusing carbon bombs on the African continent to reverse climate change, protect the environment, and improve the living situation of the local population.

The climate emergency needs a new response from global society: defusing carbon bombs, the biggest fossil fuel projects in the world, which emit more than 1 Gigaton (1 billion tons) of CO2 over their lifetime. LINGO, Global Energy Monitor, and Urgewald have published a global list of over 400 projects (half coal, half oil & gas) and the analysis shows that the CO2 emissions of these projects would take us way beyond the 1.5°C goal. We need to pay more attention to them and develop strategies to prevent the implementation and the disastrous consequences of these projects.

Kjell Kühne, the director of LINGO, started the session by presenting the current situation regarding carbon bombs in the whole world and then in Africa specifically.

On an important side note: The High Atlas Foundation is very grateful to have partnered with LINGO, Germanwatch, GreenFaith, Ummah for Earth, The Faculty of Islamic Law at University Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah on the International Conference on Islam and Climate Emergency in Fes that took place this past February. Our shared public statement reflects the common understanding reached by the Islamic and climate scholars over the three days.

There are 425 projects considered carbon bombs all over the world. However, 40% of these are new projects which means that they are only in the planning or construction phase.

This gives initiatives such as LINGO more possibilities to fight these projects to prevent their implementation and protect the climate and environment.

If no new carbon bomb projects were to be added to the current ones, we would have a 50% chance of actually reaching the 1.5°C target set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Otherwise, staying below 1.5°C of global warming is virtually impossible.

Kühne´s research on this topic was featured in a Guardian article about carbon bombs. There he exposed world leaders who, shortly after backing more climate action at the Climate Summit in Glasgow, enabled huge new oil, gas, and coal projects, which will continue to drive up global warming and environmental pollution all over the world.

To defuse these carbon bombs LINGO has developed a three-step approach: Identify, Understand, and Defuse.

In these graphics, the major carbon projects in the world and Africa can be seen:

The International Energy Agency has stated that there is no need for the construction of new fossil fuel projects. Instead, current projects should be put into harvest mode where they are kept running until the end without additional expansion to bridge the transition phase to a carbon-neutral society in the future. Alternatively, projects such as coal mines with a particularly bad impact on the environment should be shut down early to mitigate potential damages.

Big projects take lots of time and there are many players involved, which offers many potential points of intervention to stop them. To achieve that, a global, climate-friendly, bottom-up approach is needed.

Considering that the emission of 1 Gigaton of CO2 amounts to approximately 225,000 deaths and $418 billion in damages, millions of lives and trillions of dollars could be saved this way. One of the possible intervention points is researching the supply chains, identifying important project partners in areas such as insurance, finance, logistics, sales, refining, etc., and publishing information about their involvement to force these companies to submit to public pressure and pull out of these projects.

Another way to stop these projects is using litigation to force courts and governments to investigate the projects and punish companies for breaking laws as well as creating publicity for these issues. It is also important to reverse the reframing of harmful energy sources by the fossil fuel industry to green and sustainable alternatives.

For example, the renaming of fossil gas to natural gas has led the population to believe that it is environment-friendly. In reality, however, it is methane, a greenhouse gas with a big short-term impact. Decreasing the use of methane would have immediate impacts such as saving lives and protecting the environment.

Samuel Okulony from the Environment Governance Institute Uganda and StopEACOP held a presentation about the importance of stopping the construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) through Uganda and Tanzania, a carbon bomb in Africa.

TotalEnergies, The Uganda National Oil Company, the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation, and CNOOC Limited are the shareholders of the pipeline, which will be electrically heated to above 50°C and has a peak capacity of 246,000 barrels of crude oil. It will be 1,443 km long, of which 470 km will run through the Lake Victoria Basin.

Lake Victoria is crucial for the region as it directly supports the livelihoods of more than 40 million people in the region.

Over 25 years, the project will generate over 379 million tonnes of CO2 emissions, which would exceed France’s national emissions in 2020, which amounted to 277 million tons of CO2. The implementation of EACOP will seriously worsen the severity of the global climate emergency.

Over 13,292 households or over 86,000 people in Uganda and Tanzania are affected by the project. Many of them had to move houses and 3,500 households were displaced economically. Nearly 2,000 sq. km of protected wildlife habitats are affected by the pipeline construction, which threatens vulnerable species such as chimpanzees or elephants as being able to traverse through these reserves is critical for their survival.

Mitigating climate change will require united efforts from people, governments, and companies from all around the world. Because of that the construction of a massive crude oil pipeline amidst a climate emergency goes against any rational judgment. Should the involved companies refuse to listen to the scientific evidence opposing the project, the StopEACOP Initiative proposes approaching banks and insurance companies to prevent the financing and insuring of EACOP and putting an end to the project this way.