The west’s dash for African gas has become a rallying point at Cop27, with climate justice activists calling out the hypocrisy of rich polluting nations who are scrambling to keep energy prices down by pushing for more fossil fuel projects in Africa.
This short-term fix to the energy price crisis created by Russia’s war on Ukraine will lock some of the poorest, most climate-affected countries in the world in polluting fossil fuel projects with few economic or energy benefits for the communities whose land, water and heritage will be sacrificed.
It has been called out as “energy colonialism” – a political-corporate alliance on display at Cop27. There, more than 630 industry lobbyists are scattered around the conference centre in Sharm el-Sheikh as deals on climate finance, forests and food systems are being made.
It’s a huge, often insurmountable challenge for grassroots leaders from frontline communities to have their voices heard – let alone offer alternatives to the mostly market-based solutions being pushed.
But the climate justice movement’s message is clear: community-based renewable projects that work for the people, not corporations, are a necessity, according to Dipti Bhatnagar, from Friends of the Earth International in Mozambique. “It’s not just about the energy source, it’s about the whole energy system – who decides, who benefits and who profits.”
Across Africa, an estimated 600 million people still lack access to electricity – in large part because most fossil fuel investment is directed toward infrastructure for export rather than downstream power delivery to Africans. But there’s no guarantee that the transition to solar, wind, hydro and geothermal will be just, warns the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, which tracks abuses and conflicts linked to the green energy sector.
The Lake Turkana windfarm in northern Kenya is built on indigenous territory after 40,000 acres were handed over to a consortium of investors without consulting the Indigenous pastoral communities who have lived and farmed sustainably on the land for hundreds – if not thousands – of years. The wind project, the biggest in Africa, has caused forced migration, conflicts, gender-based violence, water and food insecurity as well as the disruption of cultural and language traditions due to the influx of construction workers.
Farmers have been forced to move further and further away with their goats, cows and camels in search of grazing lands and water, as the region faces the worst drought in decades.
“This is not just transition, this is land grabbing,” said John Tingoi, 47, from the Indigenous Movement for Peace Advancement and Conflict Transformation (Impact) in northern Kenya. “If you violate people’s basic rights and the communities have no benefits, it can never be just.”
Between 2015 and 2021, the Resource Centre recorded 369 attacks linked to renewable energy, including the murder of 98 land and environmental defenders. Most were related to dams, but violence and criminal persecution of activists linked to wind, solar and geothermal projects is rising rapidly.
None of the world’s 15 largest renewable energy companies have policies on respecting land rights despite wind and solar requiring substantial amounts of land; only a quarter have policies recognising the rights of Indigenous peoples.
“The renewable energy sector is at risk of replicating the abuses of the profit driven extractive model. If we’re talking about climate but not talking about inequality and human rights, then we’re not talking about a just and sustainable energy transition,” said Jessie Cato, natural resources programme manager at the Resource Centre.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. In Kenya, after years of campaigning by activists, new legislation in 2016 banned the sale or lease of communally owned land without the consultation and approval of the whole community, in an effort to stop corrupt land deals between investors and local leaders. The communities around Turkana are using the legislation to fight another land grab – of 110,000 acres this time – and so far the court has sided with them.
More than 80% of Kenya’s energy comes from renewables. Tingoni sees a shift in the way energy companies are doing business after a spate of legal battles, community blockades and cancellations.
“For a just transition there must be full transparency so that the community’s benefits reflect the profits,” added Vivian Silole, 29, the gender and resource manager from Impact.
Global greenhouse emissions rose by a staggering 1% last year, even though they need to be nosediving if we have any hope of averting complete catastrophe for the countries that have historically contributed least to the climate emergency.
But the transition to renewables is slowly taking shape. It is dominated by private investors at every part of the supply chain, due to a push by the US and other western economies at Cop27, which is being resisted by developing nations who face mounting debt to solve and adapt to a crisis that is not of their making.
“As we push for a rapid transition, we need think more critically about investment, regulation and ownership, so that energy is less extractive, companies are held accountable and communities benefit through co-ownership or community ownership,” said Thea Riofrancos, associate professor of political science at Providence College and an expert on resource extraction, renewable energy, climate change, and social movements.
The mining sector has an inglorious record of serious human rights violations: land grabs, water contamination, violence and criminalization. This pattern is unsurprisingly being repeated with transitional minerals required for electric vehicles and green technologies such as lithium, copper and cobalt.
The Resource Centre’s transition minerals tracker recorded 495 allegations of human rights abuses related to mineral extraction between 2010 and 2021. Water shortages and contamination were the most common environmental problems. Mining’s water-guzzling nature on top of increasingly intense droughts and erratic rain patterns make this a huge concern.
Lesley Muñoz Rivera, 26, belongs to the Colla Indigenous people from the Atacama in northern Chile, where her community is battling to stop lithium, gold, copper and silver from being mined from an expansive salt flat that they rely upon for water to farm and keep livestock. The communities which will be most affected by a likely shortage of water in this arid mountainous area were not consulted, and the project was suspended by the supreme court two years ago.
Munoz Rivera said: “We do not have alternative water sources, and the rain and snow have declined because of climate change. How can lithium be a just solution to climate change if it means sacrificing my community.”