New report: UK taxpayer backing for Mozambique gas project would be ‘Total Disaster’

As the UK government imminently prepares to make a decision on supporting the controversial Mozambique Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) with $1.15 billion of taxpayer finance, a new briefing from Oil Change International lays bare the disastrous consequences of investing in this project.

The project is stuck in a quagmire of allegations around two separate massacres, the death of a British citizen, corruption claims, and clear evidence that the project is fuelling a deadly insurgency that has already delayed the project by years.

The signs are clear that Keir Starmer and the UK government will make a final decision in the next few weeks. If the government approved the project, this would fly in the face of Starmer’s initiative to lead a ‘Global Clean Power Alliance’ and the Foreign Secretary’s claim that the government is “bringing an end to our climate diplomacy being ‘Do as I say, not as I do”.

The new report, titled Total Disaster: Will the UK government use taxpayer finance to enable a human rights nightmare abroad?, brings together, for the first time, the many problems with this project:

• An Islamist insurgency continues to rage across the region, fuelled by resentment of the gas project.
• Mozambique’s army stands accused of the torture, rape and murder of civilians at the Mozambique LNG project site, where soldiers allegedly used the project site gatehouse as a makeshift prison.
• A Mozambican army task force protecting the LNG project have separately been accused of multiple crimes against civilians in the area, including theft, rape and murder. Documents show project sponsor TotalEnergies, who were paying the soldiers, were aware of these allegations but continued to fund the task force anyway.
• Millions of dollars in gas revenues have recently been reported missing from Mozambique state bank accounts, raising concerns of corruption in Mozambique’s emerging gas industry.
• A UK citizen’s death in a 2021 massacre by insurgents at Palma – one of the biggest terrorist attacks of all time – has not yet been fully investigated, with an inquest due this year. Meanwhile, in a high-profile French court case, relatives of other victims caught up in the massacre accuse the project sponsor, TotalEnergies, of leaving their relatives to die.
• The UK government faces human rights and climate legal risk if it funds the project, which could emit more greenhouse gas pollution over its lifetime than the entire annual emissions of the European Union.
• Peaking global gas demand means there may no longer be a market for the much-delayed by the time it comes online, making it uneconomical.

Adam McGibbon, Campaign Strategist at Oil Change International, said:

“Taken together, the problems of this project are jaw-dropping. No government serious about climate leadership or human rights on the world stage can seriously contemplate financing this project. 

Any project that Liz Truss was an enthusiastic backer of should raise red flags. Keir Starmer can either walk away from this project, or have it as a millstone around his neck every time he gets up on a stage to talk about climate or human rights.” 

Notes to the editor:

• Oil Change International, represented by solicitors Leigh Day, wrote to the UK government earlier in the year calling on them to refuse funding for this project, or potentially face legal action on human rights and climate grounds.