The signatories denounce the “devastating impacts that gas extraction has on livelihoods, public health, human rights and biodiversity”
The actress Alba Flores, the scientist from the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSICFernando Valladares and civil society groups have urged Spain and Europe to stop the expansion of gas in Africa.
This has been stated, together with more than one hundred international celebrities, climate experts and civil society organizations, in a letter that has been sent to the Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez; the Vice President and Minister of Energy Transition Teresa Ribera, as well as the heads of state of Germany, Italy, France, Spain and the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, on the eve of the climate summit, COP27 in Egypt.
The signatories have warned European politicians that stop the “race for the gas” from Africaintroduce rapid demand reduction measures in Europe and speed up the development of clean energy solutions.
The environmental and social organizations of Spanish civil society that signed the letter include Ecologists in Action, the Platform Responds to Midcat, IIDMA, ECODESthe Association of Popular Culture Alborada -Gallur, Zaragoza Citizen Platform without Fracture, Fridays for Future Madrid, CSIC or Savia Foundation for Commitment and Values.
The three measures enacted by the signatories seek “overcome the current energy price crisis linked to fossil fuels, in addition to advancing a response to the climate and environmental emergency”.
Spain is included among the objectives of the letter for its “central role” of interconnection between the African continent and Europe through gas pipelines and terminals that receive gas from Algeria and other countries, in addition to investing in new gas infrastructures, “even when the existing ones are underutilized.”
That the gas comes from fields in active production
Although Spain is in a “unique position” to benefit from an increase in exports, the signatories consider that “it is important that the gas comes from fields in active production – which should gradually reduce their activity to meet climate goals – and not new exploration.
In the letter, they acknowledge that the energy crisis based on fossil fuels, aggravated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, “It is directly affecting households and European workers, especially the most vulnerable, and that governments must respond to this”.
Likewise, they emphasize that for the African continent any new gas development “would exacerbate the climatic impacts in one of the regions least responsible for the crisis, and would aggravate the devastating impacts that gas extraction has on livelihoods, public health, human rights and biodiversity”.
Through the letter, the signatories stand in solidarity with their African allies demanding an end to gas extraction on their continent through a campaign called ‘Don’t Gas Africa’.
They are particularly concerned that Europe’s race for gas on the continent “undermines Africa’s development by condemning it to conflicts financed by greed fueled by fossil fuels and lock the continent into insurmountable debt to cover export-oriented gas production and the costs of these stranded assets.”
“Moving forward is stopping the search for gas. Advancing in human rights requires an economic and consumption decrease. Europe indeed needs Africa, but not its gas. We need an immediate and just energy transition. That is true energy sovereignty”, commented the CSIC scientist Fernando Valladares.
This letter has been sent when the International Energy Agency has published its report World Energy Outlook 2022, in which it is stated that “no one should imagine that the invasion of Russia [de Ucrania] can justify a wave of new oil and gas infrastructure in a world that wants to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
Do not expand new gas and oil fields
The report agrees that a net-zero emissions trajectory “implies that no new oil or gas fields are expanded anywhere in the world, and instead large investments are needed in renewable energy“.
For Lorraine Chiponda, from ‘Don’t Gas Africa’, “the imminent expansion of fossil fuels and gas in Africa and throughout the world ignores the need for a just transition to move away from fossil fuels and takes away the focus and resources from driving a clean energy transition.
At this point, you have warned that the gas push “is not driven by the needs of 600 million people in Africa who live in energy poverty or because of the development needs of the continent”.
“Africa needs a systems change that ushers in a just transition that provides regenerative economies for people, decentralizes energy systems to reach marginalized populations, and provide clean energy for all and lastly, allow everyone to thrive in a clean and healthy environment,” Chiponda said.
With this letter, they urge European leaders to “seize this historic moment and act as true climate leaders” and end any agreement to expand gas production and infrastructure in Africa; introduce “quick fixes” to reduce gas demand in Europe that apply to energy and industrial processes; and invest in the large-scale deployment of renewable energy in collaboration with African countries and democratic institutions “to support access to energy and enable governments to develop zero emission industrial strategies of carbon that do not support the development of fossil fuels”.