A group of Non-governmental Organisations across Africa has raised concern over European Union’s energy strategy, saying it will not only worsen Africa food crisis, it will
further accelerate climate crisis.
Recently, the European Union called on the United States, Canada, African and Gulf countries to open up new gas supplies to displace supplies of Russian oil and gas.
The group in a statement recently in Abuja said the strategy failed to address its impact on energy, the global
impacts of the war in Ukraine, and Western sanctions will have on developing
countries dependent on oil and gas imports.
The new strategy also contravenes the EU’s commitment laid out in the REpowerEU strategy to reduce its gas demand by 30% by 2030.
Health of Mother Earth Foundation and Oilwatch Africa, Director, Dr. Nnimmo Bassey, said “Now is the time for renewables to be at the core of global energy
policies. Ukraine is not just a wake-up call it is an eye-opener in the heart of Europe. Instead, the continent, like a drug addict, is turning to Africa in what simply amounts to a rash, stubborn, mindless, colonial
pursuit of profit at the expense of people of Africa, the continent and the entire planet. We need to be thinking beyond the bottom line of
those who have brought us to the brink of catastrophe. Anything less will be nothing other than willful climate and ecological crimes,”.
Also speaking, Landry Ninteretse nother members of the group, 350.org, said it was entirely reckless that the EU calls on African nations to open up
more gas supplies to feed their fossil fuel addiction. African countries are faced with a multitude of
interlinked and mutually reinforcing crises, climate impacts, water scarcity, energy poverty, insufficient food production, post-covid impacts, leaving millions of people vulnerable and unable to meet their
basic needs.”
Stand With Ukraine campaign coordinator,omanko, said: “Russia’s outrageous war against Ukraine fully exposed Europe’sdependence on fossil fuel imports and lack of political willpower to lead the green revolution globally. The European oil and gas-led energysecurity has failed, and we have to acknowledge this.“The EU is poignantly slow in banning and phasing out Russian fossil fuels andevery day still sending about one billion euros to feed Putin’s war machine but far more active in mobilizing oil and gas reserves worldwide. This severely undermines the EU global leadership in greentransformation declared by the EU Green Deal and brings us back to thedark times of fossil fueled colonialism”.Also, Coordinator, Energy Diplomacy at E3G, Maria Pastukhova, said: “In its current form, the External Energy Strategy questions the EU’sability to navigate the ongoing crisis. The EU is about to miss yet another opportunity to take on the role of the global leader supporting the emerging markets and developing economies in addressing the energyand climate emergency. This “international crisis response”, driven by the incumbent interests of fossil fuel industry, is short-sighted andrisks diluting the strong signal that the remaining REpowerEU strategy sends to foreign partners,”“In 1972, Dr Walter Rodney, Guyana’s revolutionary scholar, published the seminal text, ‘How Europe underdeveloped Africa.’ Fifty years later,it seems that Europe has learnt nothing. European power remains committed to exploitation of our African sisters and brothers and themindless destruction of the earth through greenhouse gas pollution fromfossil gas.“European citizens must rein in their rogue governments andswitch to renewables before it is too late,”Melinda Janki – A Fair Deal for Guyana – A Fair Deal for the Planet.
Nick Bryer, from 350.org said the strategy’s heavy focus on securing alternative gas and oil supplies is a short-sighted and a reckless response to the ongoing global energy crisis. It fails to address the impacts of the energy crisis and it will
accelerate the climate crisis.
Director Oil Change International Collin Rees said: “The EU’s new energy strategy is woefully inadequate, and would lock in
decades’ more extraction of deadly gas and oil. Driving new gas infrastructure development in the United States and across the world while deepening its own dependence on volatile fossil fuels is the last thing Europe should be doing. Europe needs a full-scale mobilization to
expand clean, renewable energy and encourage other countries to do the
same, and this new plan badly misses the mark,”
