Exemplary leadership in reclaiming people's control of energy

 
By Ann Grace Apiita

‘Two roads overcame the hyena,' is a well-known African proverb on commitment that tells of how a hungry hyena on the Tanzanian plains saw two healthy goats; each trapped in the thicket at the extreme end of these two separate paths. With his mission to eat both animals, he decided that his left leg would follow the left path and the right leg the opposite path. Unfortunately, poor hyena split into two because these paths veered in different directions.

The lesson here is for people to choose one path and commit to it.

Uganda chose two paths this year: one path led to endorsement of the Paris Agreement opened for signature on April 22 at the UN headquarters in New York and the second path led to endorsement of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline, a project slated to begin in January 2017.

It is very unfortunate if leaders in government made commitments to the former treaty without understanding the implications of its requirements and equally chose the latter project because it is the fastest path to development.

The situation is even more perplexing when decisions to execute such a multibillion-dollar project to export crude oil to the international market is encouraged by leaders in government who understand the vulnerability of the country to climatic impacts. With the establishment of the Climate Change Unit, a department established in 2008 within the Ministry of Water and Environment to support Uganda yield to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change - UNFCCC, it seems like an ineffectual initiative in the face of a huge fossil project underway.

In addition, when government is following a path that leads to humanitarian deaths and climate destruction, one would imagine that the Parliamentary Forum for Climate Change would be in the best position to assess and take actions on ground.

The Break Free from Fossil Fuel campaign has taken a silent tone in Uganda: The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development on the contrary is committed to oil exploration and extraction regardless of Uganda's pledges to the UNFCCC.

With the waves of community excitement about the discovery of oil in the Albertine Graben region, generally it is considered that it will be the magic bullet for socio-economic development. However, the crude oil produced in the Albertine region will target international markets through Tanzania since Uganda is land-locked.

Extraction of coal, oil and gas requires technologies that are environmentally unfriendly like hydraulic fracturing, oil drilling and mining. This will adversely affect biodiversity and ecosystems such as Lake Albert which borders Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo.

Oil drilling will reduce bird and fish population, brewing social turmoil in the neighbouring communities who depend on fish for their livelihood.

Tourism contributes $2billion to Uganda's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to government records. It is biodiversity-based and very sensitive to such massive destructive projects which in most situations cause oil spillage.

While other nations have been building momentum to escalate the Break Free from Fossil Fuels campaign to keep coal, oil and gas in the ground, Uganda has been building momentum to execute the dangerous ‘East African Crude Oil Pipeline' infrastructural project supported by Total and Tullow oil companies owned by the French and British respectively.

The earth has been subdued to massive exploitation of coal, oil and gas - fossil fuel energy for decades which has altered the entire climate system to a level that is alarming.

And with government leaders following two distinct paths, no one can have it both ways because the impacts of pumping more carbondioxide into the atmosphere will eventually return to haunt the most vulnerable community.

Although emissions have no bounds, recent trends show that climate-fragile zones face climatic risks to greater magnitudes and Uganda of all countries, who has been faithful to climate negotiations, should understand it best.

With the current drop in oil prices, who knows if 30 years later the fossil fuel industry is compelled out of the market with stiff competition from the clean - renewable energy market and strict regulation by world leaders?

Uganda's Ministry of Energy and Mineral development must channel investments toward promoting clean and renewable energy sources instead.

The writer is a climate tracker
(@anngapita)