Read the latest insights and analysis from the experts at Oil Change International.
The disconnect is terrifyingly stark. Last week, the Guardian newspaper reported that the “World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C target”, with the planet heading for at least 2.5C of warming “with disastrous results for humanity."
Last week, some 30,000 delegates and 25 African heads of state, as well as the European Commission President, UN Secretary-General and US Special Envoy on Climate, gathered in Nairobi for the inaugural Africa Climate Summit.
The glossy website for the African Oil Summit in London last week called the event “Africa’s premier global energy conference”. Partners included some of the biggest international oil companies such as BP, Shell, Eni, E.on and Total.
Today marks the twenty seventh anniversary of the murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the other members of the Ogoni 9. They were murdered in 1995 by the Nigerian junta for their peaceful campaign to highlight the ecological destruction and environmental racism of Shell’s operations in Nigeria.
If completed, EACOP will pose significant risks to millions of people; jeopardize vital, internationally recognized ecosystems; and, at peak production, generate annual carbon emissions roughly equivalent to the carbon footprint of nine coal-fired power plants.
Two prominent African environmentalists are pushing back against those advocating for more fossil fuel drilling on the continent. They argue that “far from generating prosperity and stability in sub-Saharan Africa, investments in fossil fuels cause real harm,” noting “Decades of fossil fuel development have failed to deliver energy to much of the continent" and "have deepened inequality, caused environmental damage, stoked corruption, and encouraged political repression.”
Another grim, painful milestone is reached. It is now a quarter of a century since Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni 9 were murdered in Nigeria by Shell.
“Shell’s concern, deeper than its fossil-fuel identity and more urgent than the climate crisis, is Shell. I don’t believe it’s going to lead us to the Paris climate goals, and Shell probably doesn’t believe it will either.”
We are struck by some parallels between the Ogoni struggle, the insistent energy of the recent School Strikes and Extinction Rebellion's actions over the past weeks.
Some twenty four years after Saro-Wiwa’s death, along with eight of his colleagues, who were illegally murdered by the Nigerian Government for their campaign against Shell, a Dutch court today heard from the widows of those hung.
