Environmentalists Picket African Energy Week, Opposing New Oil and Gas

CAPE TOWN – Climate activists demonstrated outside the African Energy Week conference in Cape Town on Tuesday, demanding an end to new oil and gas exploration in Africa. They accused energy companies of putting profits ahead of communities and the environment.

Campaigners from Greenpeace Africa and Extinction Rebellion rejected the industry’s push to market Africa as the next major frontier for fossil fuel development. They argued that additional investment in oil and gas would intensify climate change and deepen the hardships facing communities already affected by extreme weather and environmental damage.

“Oil companies from overseas have made billions in profits this year alone at the expense of people’s lives, at the expense of ecosystems, at the expense of African lives,” Siya Myeza, a climate and energy campaigner with Greenpeace Africa, told The Associated Press.

Myeza renamed the event “Africa Exploitation Week,” accusing the fossil fuel industry of fueling environmental destruction and poverty. Police later removed the demonstrators, many of whom wore T-shirts emblazoned with the message, “Make polluters pay.”

The protest unfolded as South Africa pursues expanded oil and gas development in an effort to attract investment and strengthen energy security. Government officials describe natural gas as a backup for renewable power, arguing that gas-fired plants can supply electricity when wind and solar generation declines.

British energy company Shell intends to drill as many as five deepwater wells in the Northern Cape Ultra Deep block off South Africa’s west coast. The exploration project is designed to identify and evaluate oil and gas deposits, but its environmental approval is facing appeals despite previous legal setbacks.

Protesters argue that projects such as Shell’s could lock the country and the wider continent into fossil fuel dependence just as governments should be moving to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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Judy Scott-Goldman, an Extinction Rebellion representative in Cape Town, said renewable energy would be discussed at the conference. But she said activists objected to the promotion of new oil and gas exploration.

Scott-Goldman said expanding fossil fuel production would conflict with the emissions-reduction commitments countries made under the Paris climate agreement.

“We’re here to say we don’t want to see any exploration of oil and gas on this continent,” she told the AP.

She cited wildfires, flooding and rising food costs as visible consequences of climate change, warning that worsening conditions could also fuel migration and social unrest.

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AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa