Environmental Activists are set to protest as the AGM of BP Oil takes place in Aberdeen on Tuesday 21st of May. Representatives from indigenous groups will also be at the demonstration.

Ilham Rawoot, Ja! For Change (Friends of the Earth Mozambique) said:

“BP will be the sole buyer of gas from the Coral LNG Project in Mozambique, which is led by Eni, and is displacing and destroying the livelihoods of thousands of local people and devastating the environment.

“The development will affect the UNESCO-protected Quirimbas Archipelago at risk, home to coral reefs and a wide diversity of marine and terrestrial species including the endangered sei whale, Indian yellow-nosed albatross and loggerhead turtle.

Ilham Rawoot continued:

“The environmental impact assessment shows that just this one project will increase the greenhouse gas emissions of Mozambique by 10% by 2022.”

Mozambique is expected to become a major exporter of Natural Gas by 2023.

In addition to Gas, Mozambique’s National Petroleum Institute has awarded four concessions for petroleum exploration and production in offshore blocks in the Angoche and Zambezi Basins and in onshore blocks in the Mozambique Basin to four separate consortiums led by ExxonMobil,  Sasol, ENI, and Delonex Energy (U.K.)

The expansion of the exploration and development of lucrative fossil fuel industries in Mozambique comes at the same time as the country faces the worst effects of rapid climate change.

Cyclone Idai hit Mozambique on March 14 and 15, 2019 and Cyclone Kenneth arrived on April 25, 2019.

Flooding in Southern Africa has already affected nearly 3 million people in Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe since rains began in early March and Cyclone Idai struck March 14 and 15. The death toll exceeds 843 people.

Idai is the strongest cyclone on record in the Southern Hemisphere. The U.N. children’s agency estimates that 1.5 million children are affected. World Vision

Scottish Government Announces £150,000 to Support Relief Efforts in the Wake of Cyclone Idai

The Scottish Government has declared a Climate Emergency.  On the 14th of May 2019, in a statement to the Scottish Parliament Roseanna Cunningham, Climate Change Secretary in the Scottish Government said:

“There is a global climate emergency.  The evidence is irrefutable.  The science is clear.  And people have been clear: they expect action.  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a stark warning last year:  the world must act now.  By 2030 it will be too late to limit warming to 1.5 degrees.

“Last week another UN body, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, issued a warning about the damage human beings are causing to the planet.  It finds that the drivers of damage have accelerated over the past 50 years.

“Climate change is one of the top three causes.

“….it’s not too late for us to turn things around, but to do so requires transformative change.   This is not just about government action.  And it is not something that only affects Scotland.  All countries must act and must do so quickly and decisively. “

Energy is a sector reserved to the UK Parliament and in 2017 the UK Government awarded 25 licences for oil and gas exploration in previously untapped waters and announced a new licensing round for mature areas. Onshore licences have also been awarded – around 2000 onshore wells have now been drilled in the UK with 10% of them having been fracked. Scotland currently has a moratorium which means fracking cannot take place whilst it is enforced.

Ja! For Change in Mozambique  is an organisation which seeks to:

Engender a culture of civil action in Mozambique both through actions to protect the environment and by actively engaging in developmental decisions relating to issues of environmental justice in Mozambique and throughout the world.

They are committed to free rivers and clean water for all, environmental law and policy monitoring, promotion of renewable energies and a toxic free environment.

Quirimbas Archipelago Mozambique

Reporter: Fiona Grahame