Ugandan Climate Activist "Ambushes" Potential Eacop Funder At COP27

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(file photo).
10 November 2022
Nile Post (Kampala)
By Jonah Kirabo

Patience Nabukalu, a Ugandan climate activist, "ambushed" a top official from Japan's MUFG bank, one of the possible sponsors of the Uganda-Tanzania oil pipeline, and begged him to condemn the project.

Nabukalu, a Fridays for Future Uganda member, informed the official that Uganda has a lot of underutilized solar energy that such institutions should fund instead of investing in fossil fuels.

The match up occurred on the fringes of the ongoing COP27 in Egypt on Wednesday during the Finance Day deliberations.

"Why can't you finance solar energy in Africa? We experience the longest sun (dry periods) for the whole year, but the banks are still financing projects like EACOP," Nabukalu said.

Nile Post understands that more than 40 financial institutions around the world have now ruled out funding fossil fuel projects such as the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).

Nabukalu (in green) ambushing the EACOP funder

However, Japan's MUFG Bank has not ruled out EACOP, and the bank has refused to comment on whether or not it intends to fund the pipeline.

According to a recent finance study, Japan is one of the top public financiers of fossil fuels, spending more than $10 billion per year on new gas, oil, and coal projects.

Nabukalu charged the bank with leading the transition to sustainable energy sources rather than investing in EACOP.

"The EACOP pipeline is being constructed in my country right now, why is it being funded by such a big company that would have been investing in something else? Maybe greener jobs... " Nabukalu added.

Uganda's Energy and Mineral Development Minister Ruth Nankabirwa, who is also attending the COP27 in Egypt, stated on the margins of a ministerial round table that the EACOP project cannot be halted at this time since the government is prepared to go on with it regardless of who withdraws.

"We won't get stuck now that we've started." "We will seek funding from countries that understand and appreciate Africa's issues," she stated.

According to Nankabirwa, in the case of Africa, the move to green energy sources should be facilitated rather than pushed.

Environmentalists and climate campaigners have expressed worries that if the project is realized, it may harm fragile natural resources. These argue that no new fossil-fuel projects should be launched as the globe grapples with increasing temperatures.

Read the original article on Nile Post.

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