The African Chamber of Energy (CAE) announced Wednesday that it is recommending African partners boycott companies and institutions that want to divest from the oil and gas industry on the continent due to environmental concerns.
“In response to declining interest in African oil and gas projects, particularly as Western nations continue to impede investments in African fossil fuels, the CAE states that it will encourage African countries to boycott or curb agreements with international companies that discontinue investments and reject the African oil industry,” reads a note sent to Lusa.
In the text, the CEA, which represents oil interests on the continent, argues that “there is no reason to invest African pension funds or do business with financial institutions that refuse to invest in African energy companies because of climate change,” and stresses that “financial institutions that discriminate against the African oil and gas industry in the name of climate change are wrong and desperately need to change their mind frame and their actions.”
CEA’s note follows several communications by entities such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Royal Bank of Scotland and the International Energy Agency, among others, which have said they will stop funding projects that are not considered ‘environmentally friendly’, which has a particularly significant impact in Africa, the continent that contributes the least to greenhouse gas emissions.
“How is it possible that, following the establishment of new legal frameworks in countries like Nigeria, Angola or Senegal, which the international community demanded, the same organizations now decide to end investments” in this area, question the representatives of African energy producers.
African countries “will not sit back and let African elites and financial institutions destroy our energy industry and the opportunities for job creation that allow us to fight energy poverty.
In the note, the CAE recognizes the importance of making the transition to a more sustainable energy production and less based on fossil fuels, but argues that the transition is a process and recalls that Africa produces seven times less pollutants than China and four times less than the United States of America.
“The energy transition in Africa is just that, a transition, that is, a process or period of change from one state to another, abruptly ending all investment in the African energy industry will not allow African countries to generate the necessary funds to switch to renewable energy solutions in the future,” they argue.
They conclude that “by boycotting fossil fuels, the international community is essentially boycotting development in Africa, eliminating the opportunity for a transition and leaving millions of Africans in energy poverty.”
