Dear Chair of the African Union,

We, the civil society organizations (CSOs), from across the continent, write to you to register our displeasure that a handful of African leaders, backed by the global oil and gas industry, are leading a new scramble for polluting fossil fuels across our continent, opening our borders for a renewed oil and gas dash, when the world is fast transitioning to clean, modern, people-centered, renewable energy.

Africa needs a people-centered renewable energy buildout to shift millions of Africans out of energy poverty towards a just transition.

The actions of these individuals and companies are inconsistent with Africa’s interests, with the stated goals of our continent, and with the critical role played by the African Union in exercising leadership on these matters. We call on you, in your capacity as AU Chair, to join us in stopping the continent from being locked into more dirty and dangerous fossil fuel infrastructure, and to lead Africa on a better path.

We believe a better future is possible. During the recent Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, African leaders acknowledged that the continent is home to massive untapped renewable energy potential and abundant natural assets. In the summit’s Nairobi Declaration, they concurred that these ‘‘fundamentals’’ could enable the continent to pioneer more integrated approaches to climate, clean energy, and development as we build pathways to reduce emissions and achieve the aspirations of our people.

While the Nairobi Declaration called for more clean energy, we are disappointed that it failed to emphatically call out the global fossil fuel merchants and remained silent on the need for a rapid global phaseout of coal, oil and fossil gas. This is despite recognition by the International Energy Agency (IEA) that no new fossil fuel development is possible if we are to limit warming to below 1.5 degrees, nor is it needed to meet growing energy demand. Fossil fuel energy use must be rapidly scaled down to limit the worst ravages of the climate crisis.

Enabled by this silence, the industry is attempting to expand production across Africa in a time when we need an immediate stop of all expansion of fossil fuel extraction and shift away from the centralized, export-oriented fossil fuel infrastructure.

This is crucial for Africa’s future:

● Since our fights against colonialism and for independence, African countries have spent decades and billions of dollars investing in fossil-fuel based energy systems that have failed to provide modern energy access to 600 million people, about half of the continent’s population, creating a system of energy colonialism and apartheid which exacerbates poverty, and undermines health, environment , employment, and education.

● Fossil fuel energy systems are economically unviable and remain characterized by low generation capacity and efficiency, high costs, unstable and unreliable energy supplies.

● Expanding fossil fuel infrastructure is a costly, inefficient, and ultimately unviable means for providing universal energy access to Africa’s people, particularly to poor and widely distributed rural communities. This is the energy systems equivalent of building more telephone landlines in an era of mobile phones. Africa went from telephones to cell phones as a technology leap.

● The continent has been courted to produce natural gas in the guise of economic development, which proponents claim is a transition fuel capable of catalyzing long-term economic prosperity. This is a misguided and dangerous assumption. As well as being unsuitable to deliver “energy access”, expanding fossil gas production is not an “energy transition”.

● Fossil fuels are the driving force behind the climate catastrophe, trapping the continent in a climate emergency leaving African people on the receiving end of the exploitative cycle of neocolonialism, profit maximization and exploitation.

● Fossil fuels are behind the violence and war that ravages Africa, from Mozambique to Nigeria.

● The extraction of fossil fuels have resulted in peoples lands, water and air being contaminated and their livelihoods destroyed. The Niger Delta is the living evidence.

Despite these concerns, 48 out of the 55 African countries have ongoing fossil fuel expansion projects, with much of the infrastructure designed for export to international markets. Some African governments continue to push fossil gas as a foundation for Africa’s energy future, which we strongly oppose given the climate emergency and the history of extractivism that has ushered Africa into a state of uncertainty.

We are particularly concerned that energy leaders, investors and private and public sector executives are converging this week in South Africa for the “Africa Energy Week'' to discuss the continent’s energy future. This gathering is framed as addressin gAfrica’s energy needs and aspirations, however the true intention is to advance the interests of the oil and gas industry.

- Total Energies, ExxonMobil, Kosmos Energy and Chevron are bankrolling the event as diamond sponsors, with the intention to influence its agenda and outcomes.

- The agenda speaks of an “African Energy Renaissance: Prioritizing Energy Poverty, People, Planet, Industrialization and Free Markets”. Yet the fossil fuel industry has failed for over a century to advance these goals.

- The speaker’s list is dominated by Heads of State, Ministers and corporate executives focused on promoting expansion of fossil fuels.

Viewed objectively, the Africa Energy Week appears to be part of a systematic plan by the fossil fuel industry for the massive scaling up of oil and gas in Africa for corporate profit, risking Africa’s sustainable future and the global climate. Such a gathering should not promote deal making that promotes the expansion of oil and gas projects on African soil.

These developments represent a looming threat to Africa, and must not proceed uncontested. We call on you, as African Union Chair, to engage with us in achieving our aspiration for sustainable development powered by clean energy, and in calling out those hell-bent on expanding oil and gas. They must not determine our energy future. Building on the best outcomes of the recent AU-sponsored African Climate Summit, we call on you to utilize your office and influence to:

● Initiate urgent interventions that propel Africans out of energy poverty, including increased funding for renewable energy on the continent.

● Promote energy investments that meet the energy needs of consumers in Africa before seeking to satisfy wealthy nations' demands. ● Promote energy systems that allow for all Africans to become producers of energy, rather than just consumers.

● Follow through with commitments to increase renewable energy generation capacity from 56 GW to at least 300 GW by 2030.

● Make Africa’s position on fossil fuels known to the world and have fidelity to it.

● Call for the rejection of overtures and money from foreign entities to expand existing oil and gas projects and to establish new ones in Africa.

● Reject the assertion that gas is a transition fuel

● Hold Global North leaders to account for past climate finance pledges.

CC: Chair, Committee of the African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC) Chair, African Group of Negotiators (AGN)