This project, much criticized for its impact on biodiversity, was the subject of a non-binding text in the European Parliament on Thursday.
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A stone in the garden of TotalEnergies. The European Parliament singled out, on Thursday 15 September, the French group’s oil exploitation megaproject in Uganda and Tanzania. By a show of hands, MEPs, meeting in plenary session in Strasbourg, adopted a non-binding but particularly critical text against fossil fuel investment projects in Uganda and Tanzania. The institution says “deeply concerned about human rights violations” committed in these two countries, citing “arrests, acts of intimidation and judicial harassment against human rights defenders and non-governmental organizations”.
TotalEnergies announced in February a $10 billion investment deal with Uganda, Tanzania and Chinese oil giant CNOOC as part of Uganda’s oil exploration megaproject. In particular, it provides for an oil pipeline of more than 1,400 kilometers linking Uganda to Tanzania, sixteen years after the discovery of oil reserves in the Lake Albert region in western Uganda.
The project is the subject of strong criticism from environmental NGOs, which believe that it causes tens of thousands of farmers to lose access to their land and represents an ecological threat to this region rich in biodiversity. Estimating that more than 100,000 people risk being displaced along the route of the pipeline, MEPs are calling for a “adequate compensation scheme for expropriated persons”. In addition, the European Parliament asks the French group to take a year before the launch of the project in order to study “the feasibility of an alternative route to better preserve the protected and sensitive ecosystems and water resources of Uganda and Tanzania”.
TotalEnergies reacted on Thursday by assuring that “this project was a major challenge for Uganda and Tanzania”. “We are doing everything we can to make it an exemplary project in terms of transparency, shared prosperity, economic and social progress, sustainable development, environmental consideration and respect for human rights”assures the group.