Article author:
Associated Press
Ed Davey
According to a new nonprofit organization, the controversial oil project to connect the Uganda National Park oil fields to the port of Tanzania is a bank's global environmental guidelines. Violates. I will report on Tuesday.
The 897-mile (1443 km) East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) planned by French oil giant TotalEnergies and China National Offshore Oil Corporation was involved in allegations of human rights violations and environmental hazards. According to the African Energy Governance Institute, a non-profit organization in Uganda, 230,000 barrels of oil produced daily emit 34 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. After the final decision, construction will take three years.
At least 20 banks and 8 insurers have been excluded from the project, many under pressure from environmental groups. Standard Bank of South Africa and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) of Japan are financial advisors and lead debt consolidation. Standard Chartered Bank of the United Kingdom is also considering raising funds.
All three have signed the Equator Principles, Voluntary Environmental and Human Rights Guidelines, which are benchmarks for funding infrastructure projects. According to a report by Inclusive Development International, a non-governmental organization shared exclusively with the Associated Press, projects repeatedly violate these principles, and banks also violate these principles. Banks are prohibited from lending to non-compliant projects. However, this scheme cannot exclude such members.
The well will be excavated in Murchison Falls National Park in western Uganda. Here the Nile plunges about 130 feet (40 meters) through a gap of only 20 feet (6 meters) wide. The surrounding wilderness is home to hippo, egrets, giraffes and antelopes. The pipeline then runs through seven forest reserves and two game parks along Lake Victoria, a source of freshwater for 40 million people.
"Oil spills can have disastrous consequences for millions of people who rely on lake basins for drinking water and food production," said Environmental Campaign Group 350. org warns. The
report states that the risk of oil spills violates the equatorial principle, which requires minimal environmental impact. A review of the plan by non-profit E-Tech International, which advises communities affected by infrastructure projects, found that best practices were not followed.
"EACOP oil spills occur during the life of the project," the review concluded.
The report's authors claim that the pipeline's environmental assessment does not include a strong oil spill plan, which is a further breach of the principles. The pipeline also crosses the seismic zone, the Great Rift Valley. The Inclusive Development International report warns.
TotalEnergies said the state-of-the-art design of the pipeline will ensure safety for decades.
The company says the oil has a high wax content and solidifies at temperatures below 91.4 degrees Fahrenheit (33 degrees Celsius), preventing the oil from spreading as a liquid. The company claimed that an emergency plan was in place. Summer temperatures can reach 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) in Uganda.
According to the report, human rights standards have also been violated. At least four letters from the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, sent to Ugandan President and CEO of Total Energies Patrick Puyanne over a two-year period, detail "various harassments and intimidations" against Ugandan protests. It has been. Numerous activists and journalists were allegedly threatened, concealed, arrested and interrogated.
The Equator Principles are "not met with respect to the risks faced by criticizing community members," the report states.
TotalEnergies said it was unaware of the threat posed by its staff. The company wrote to President Uganda to share concerns, saying that Ugandan security forces "speak out about the need" to respect human rights.
"TotalEnergies does not tolerate any threats or attacks on those who peacefully defend and promote human rights," the statement read.
Analysis also violates the principle by the lack of involvement of the "no manipulation, interference, coercion, or threatening" community.
According to the Environmental Campaign Group's Friends of Earth, more than 120,000 people will lose land to give way to the project. In accordance with the principles, there must be "free and informed" consultations with potentially life-changing people.
However, the report found that these requirements were "not fully met." The
project stated that it "systematically failed" to reference and disclose accessible information.
TotalEnergies said that only 13,300 people are economically affected across Uganda and Tanzania. Since 2017, the conference has reached more than 200,000 affected individuals along the route, according to oil majors.
Finally, the report finds that the project violates land acquisition and resettlement standards. The compensation process had the negative effect of "deteriorating rather than mitigating", losing access to farmland and making villagers poor in the face of long delays awaiting compensation.
TotalEnergies said it has already begun paying compensation. The company claimed that this process complied with local law and adhered to the principles.
Amit Puri, Chair of Equator Principles, said that each member is "individually responsible for their own internal procedures" to comply. He added that the Equator Principles do not have the authority to respond to concerns about those violations.
Puri is Global Head of Environmental Risk at Standard Chartered Bank, and according to the report, he violated the guidelines by funding the pipeline. It is said that there is.
Standard Chartered Bank and SMBC declined to comment. China National Offshore Oil Corporation has not responded to many requests for a statement.
The Standard Bank said due diligence in funding the project was valued, but no final decision was made. The decision is subject to a full assessment of the climate change strategy, but the bank said it requires "full adherence" to the Equator Principles to fund the project.
Despite environmental and human rights concerns, the campaign to shut down the pipeline is "unrealistic," said Angelo Izama of Ugandan think tank Fanaka KwaWote.
"Uganda has entered this role as a poster child of climate damage, which is really unfair," he said.
It is equivalent to "rejection of Uganda's national interest".
Ugandan oil officials declined to comment.
But President Yoweri Museveni says oil wealth can save millions of people from poverty, and other government officials want Uganda to become a middle-income country. I'm out.
Efforts to stop the pipeline have been somewhat disappointing with what they see as a collaborative effort to disrupt the project.
"TotalEnergies and CNOOC have the financial and technical know-how to realize world-class projects," renowned oil lawyer Elison Karuhanga wrote in the Daily Monitor newspaper in Uganda. ..
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Additional report by Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda.
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