'As well as severe impacts on local communities and their rights, the pipeline threatens one of the world's most ecologically diverse, wildlife-rich regions.'

More than 260 NGOs and community organisations have urged the CEOs of 25 banks not to provide finance for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). In an age when ESGs -- environmental, social and governance concerns -- have growing prominence in boardrooms, their message will not fall on deaf ears.

The proposed 1,445km pipeline, which would be the longest heated crude pipeline in the world, has been years in the making. It would transport crude from landlocked Uganda, where oil was discovered in 2006, to the Tanzanian port of Tanga. Uganda's government said last week it expected construction, with French oil giant Total and Chinese state-run oil company CNOOC, to begin soon.

Environmental activists from Extinction Rebellion protest outside the Standard Bank head office in Rosebank, Johannesburg, in October 2020 against Standard Bank's connection with the East African Crude Oil Pipeline. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Kim Ludbrook)

Uganda's oil reserves are estimated at six billion barrels and lie in the Albertine rift basin in the west of the country, not far from its border with Democratic Republic...