Africa-Press – Mozambique. The African Energy Chamber (AEC) on Thursday called the lawsuit filed by environmental organisation Friends of the Earth against British funding for natural gas projects in Mozambique an attack on economic progress.
In the same statement, the executive president of the AEC, NJ Ayuk, said that Mozambique was simply doing what all Western nations have done for years, capitalising on its natural resources for the wellbeing of its people and economic development.
Ayuk maintained that invalidating liquefied natural gas (LNG) production projects, such as those Mozambique intends to develop, is dishonest and unfair.
“ African stakeholders should be allowed to make their own decisions regarding natural resource exploitation and addressing climate change,” he said.
He added that LNG energy ventures, such as those in Mozambique, represent a turning point for Africa and an additional opportunity to generate revenue.
He noted that the earnings that will result from production, transport, processing and distribution would be used to build infrastructure, fund social programmes, and support initiatives to train young people in the country, region and continent.
The AEC said that natural gas produced in Mozambique emits a smaller amount of carbon dioxide than other fossil sources.
“This lawsuit does not solve any climate problems. The lawsuit, from a western organisation, goes against Africa’s efforts to solve energy poverty and in all actuality, does not help solve any climate change challenges.,” the AEC CEO noted.
Read: Energy Chamber condemns the lawsuit restricting funding to Mozambique LNG as ill-advised and anti-energy poverty eradication
On Tuesday, the High Court in London began considering a lawsuit by the environmental organisation Friends of the Earth to overturn the British government’s decision to provide up to $1.15 billion (€1.35 billion) through the export credit agency UK Export Finance (UKEF) for gas projects in Mozambique.
The organisation argues that the decision was made without considering the project’s environmental impacts. It estimates it will be responsible for releasing up to 4,500 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over several years, which flouts Paris Agreement commitments to curb global warming.
Read: Mozambique: Environmentalists want more countries to withdraw from gas project
In November, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) representative in Mozambique, Alexis Meyer-Cirkel, considered it unwise to limit the development of the country’s gas projects.
It does not seem very sensible to me to move against those investments, he said, recognising that climate change has obvious adverse effects, but its link to fossil fuel consumption is a problem to be solved on a global level and not at the expense of one country or another.
“Mozambique is a country that emits very little” carbon, in proportion to its population (30 million inhabitants) and compared to the other countries in the world, he said.
On the other hand, the transition to renewable sources will take some time, and that transition can only be made with non-renewable sources, at least for a certain amount of time.
Meyer-Cirkel said that “Mozambique’s gas is reasonably clean” compared to other non-renewable sources.
Read: Not very sensible to limit gas projects in Mozambique – IMF representative
Mozambique will start exporting liquefied natural gas from 2022 from the Rovuma basin, where some of the world’s largest reserves have been discovered.
Gas is expected to play a key role in Mozambique’s economy in the next decade.
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