Cop 27: Uganda-Tanzania oil pipeline sparks climate row
Uganda and Tanzania are set to begin work on a massive crude oil pipeline a year after the International Energy Agency warned that the world risked not meeting its climate goals if new fossil fuel projects were not stopped. The two East African countries say their priority is economic development.
Juma Hamisi, not his real name, keeps his distance, careful not to trespass, as he points to mounds of rubble spread across an open field. They are signs that a thriving community once lived here in a mix of concrete and grass-thatched mud houses.
At this time of year, the surrounding fertile land would normally be covered with a variety of sprouting crops – enough to feed the village, along with a surplus to sell at local markets. But it too lies bare.
“We used to be the source of cassava and lemons, now there’s scarcity. We can’t even harvest the coconuts you see over there because it’s not our land anymorereu,” Hamisi says.
Several signs bearing the name Tanzania Petroleum Development Cooperation, a state agency, now claim ownership of the area where villagers once lived, farmed and played.
Some of the inhabitants of the Chongoleani peninsula, some 18km (11 miles) north of Tanzania’s port city of Tanga, sold their land for compensation two years ago, after the government signed a deal to construct a pipeline to transport crude oil from the shores of Lake Albert in western Uganda.
French energy giant Total Energies and Chinese energy firm CNOOC International also have a stake in the $5bn (£4bn) venture.
Because of the waxy nature of Lake Albert’s crude oil, it will be transported through a heated pipeline – the longest in the world. But only a third of the reserves of 6.5 billion barrels, first discovered in 2006, is deemed commercially viable.
Despite the projected economic benefits, the timing of the project has divided opinion in Uganda and beyond.
Agencies