Tayebwa warns climate activists against frustrating EACOP project
Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa has warned climate activists against frustrating the construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).
Tayebwa said that the Africa contributes too little to the global emissions and there is no justification why the country should not us its resources to develop.
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Tayebwa made these remarks on the sidelines of the belated Women’s day celebrations in Kakumiro district.
"Those activists who are saying that the pipeline is going to contribute ABCD… they should know that we followed their own international standards when we were doing the environmental impact-assessment which NEMA did," Tayebwa said.
The former government chief whip added that government also consulted a consortium of major oil NGOs, which all confirmed that the project is very “sustainable.”
"Africa contributes only less than three percent of the world emissions. Now how do you come and say we should not develop ourselves...," Tayebwa stressed.
Early this year, government through the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) agreed on a deal with Tanzania, TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) to invest more than $ 10 billion (about shs 36 trillion) in developing the crude oil production in East Africa.
The project is expected to culminate into building a vast regional oil pipeline network in Uganda, through Tanzania to the Tanga port on the Indian Ocean.
Climate activists however have since drummed up support from the region and in Europe to have the pipeline stopped saying it poses a risk to livelihoods.
Several activists have also supported the efforts to frustrate the project’s funding through the hashtag #StopEACOP on social media.
Hilda Flavia Nakabuye, the founder of Fridays for Future Uganda said that the EACOP project poses grave risks to the world’s climate.
“At a time where climate catastrophes are worsening, unlocking a new source of carbon emissions is unacceptable,” Nakabuye said.
The activists efforts have so far seen a number of banks withdraw and denounce financing the mega oil pipeline.
French energy giant, TotalEnergies which is developing the pipeline with CNOOC said last week that it was taking steps to mitigate the environmental and human impact of the project.
