Banks| Policies| Dodgy Deals| Campaigns
About us| Blog| Publications| Successes| Contact us| Donate
About BankTrack
Visit us
Organisation
Our team
Our board
Guiding principles
Team up with us
Jobs at BankTrack
Our annual reports
Funding and finances
History
BankTrack in the media
Our privacy policy
Donate
2023-01-23 00:00:00
Berta Cáceres: new rules for banks could help stop defender killings
2023-01-16 00:00:00
In the balance: Why European due diligence legislation must cover financial services
2022-12-08 00:00:00
Exposed: Western banks funding Qatar’s carbon bombs
2022-12-08 00:00:00
Right-wing attack on sustainable finance is the latest form of climate denial
2022-12-14 11:08:26
HSBC announces it will no longer finance new oil and gas fields
2022-10-13 15:56:39
More major banks and insurers refuse to support EACOP
2022-09-16 10:38:48
European Parliament passes emergency resolution against human rights violations & environmental threats linked to EACOP
2022-06-27 09:49:16
Crédit Agricole takes first step to phase out from the oil and gas sector
Connect
2022-11-22 00:00:00
Banking on Thin Ice: Two years in the heat
2022-11-17 00:00:00
BankTrack Global Human Rights Benchmark 2022
2022-10-21 00:00:00
Burning forests in the name of clean energy? How banks are failing to exclude the harmful wood biomass industry from finance
2022-06-28 00:00:00
The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP): Finance Risk Update No. 3
2022-04-05 00:00:00
The BankTrack Human Rights Benchmark Asia
2022-03-30 00:00:00
Banking on Climate Chaos 2022
See all publications
Browse
Home
Banks
Policies
Dodgy Deals
Campaigns
About
About BankTrack
Donate
Contact BankTrack
Publications
Victories
Follow Us
News
BankTrack blog
Facebook
Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Instagram
Affiliate Websites
Fossil Banks No Thanks
StopEACOP
Forests & Finance
Banks & Biodiversity
Drop JBS
Bank of Coal
Don't Buy into Occupation
Home › News
Over 260 organisations call on banks not to finance Total’s East African Crude Oil Pipeline
With a final investment decision nearing, African and International organisations warn banks against joining $2.5 billion loan for a “manifestly irresponsible” project • New stopeacop.net campaign website launched.
Start
Banks
Dodgy Deals

By: BankTrack, 350.org Africa, AFIEGO, Inclusive Development International & IUCN NL
2021-03-01
International

Contact:

For AFIEGO: afiego@afiego.org

For BankTrack: Ryan Brightwell; +31634643116; ryan@banktrack.org; 

For 350 Africa: Landry Ninteretse; skype: landryninteretse; landry@350.org; 

For Inclusive Development International: David Pred; +1 917-280-2705; david@inclusivedevelopment.net,


Share this page:

Photo: BankTrack
Go to:
Start
Related Banks
Related Dodgy Deals

Today 263 community and not-for-profit organisations from around the world urged the CEOs of 25 banks not to participate in loans to fund the construction of the world’s longest heated crude oil pipeline.

In an open letter, organisations from 49 countries, including 122 African-based organisations, detail the immense threats that the 1,445-kilometer-long East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) would pose to local communities, water supplies, and biodiversity in Uganda, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya.

They also warn that the pipeline – proposed by French oil company Total and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation – will fuel climate change by transporting oil that will generate over 34 million tons of carbon emissions each year.

The letter to the three banks acting as financial advisors for the project – Standard Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China – and 22 banks that have recently provided finance to Total and CNOOC, comes as speculation mounts that a Final Investment Decision (FID), which would commit Total to mobilize capital for the project, is imminent.

Nearly a third of the pipeline will run through the basin of Africa’s largest lake, Lake Victoria – which more than 40 million people depend on for water and food production. It will also cross more than 200 rivers, run through thousands of farms and cut through vital wildlife reserves.

The pipeline is expected to cost around $3.5 billion. Of this, about $2.5 billion will be borrowed from banks and other financiers. It is not yet clear which banks intend to participate, although the three banks acting as financial advisors are likely to join and act as lead arrangers. The UK’s Export Credit Agency, UK Export Finance has also confirmed that it has been approached for a project loan, although the agency is consulting on timing around a recent announcement to end finance for fossil fuel projects overseas.

Signatories to the open letter included Friends of the Earth International, 350.org, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, Reclaim Finance, Sierra Club, Global Witness, the IUCN National Committee of the Netherlands, BankTrack, Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO) and Inclusive Development International (IDI).

Several organisations that played prominent roles in fighting North American pipelines including the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and Keystone XL also signed the letter, including Indigenous Environmental Network and Divest Invest Protect. African environmental and human rights law NGO Natural Justice, a signatory, described efforts to stop EACOP as Africa “facing its own Standing Rock moment”.

The 263 organisations are demanding that Total provides full and fair compensation to communities already affected by the project, and are calling on banks to publicly rule out providing any funding to the construction of the pipeline and work with governments and other financiers to promote a sustainable energy future for East Africa based on clean alternatives instead of oil.

Speaking on behalf of AFIEGO, Diana Nabiruma said: “In light of the climate change crisis, many countries have made commitments to clean up their energy systems by promoting renewable energy. Oil companies including Total, the lead proponent of the EACOP project, have increased investment in renewable energy as they realise that this is the energy of the future. Knowing this, why would they seek to saddle Ugandans and Tanzanians with the EACOP? No responsible bank should finance the EACOP project well knowing that the economic, environmental, climate change and social risks of the project are too immense.”

Bantu Lukambo, Director of the Congolese NGO Innovation for the Development and Protection of the Environment (IDPE) said: “Pollution has no boundaries, any environmental impact triggered by the EACOP pipeline will affect not only wildlife and communities but will threaten also the stability in the region, with possible oil spills in some of the last remaining water reservoirs of the Great African Lakes, fuelling disputes between countries."

Environmentalist and 350.org founder Bill McKibben said: “This project is like something from a completely different era, fifty or seventy-five years ago when we knew nothing about climate change, were still in the grip of colonialism, and didn't understand that the other species we shared the earth with were beginning to disappear. In 2021, the EACOP is a metaphor for ecological, social, political and humanitarian ignorance.”

David Pred, Executive Director of Inclusive Development International said: “It is difficult to conceive of a more dangerous project at a more perilous moment for the planet than the EACOP. The good news is that it’s not too late to stop this project and the global warming calamity that it would accelerate. The big banks we’ve written to today have it within their power to stop destructive projects like EACOP in their tracks.”

Ryan Brightwell, Researcher and Editor at BankTrack commented: “Banks have been made aware of the tremendous risks posed by this pipeline, and they have been made aware of the groundswell of opposition from communities and civil society locally and internationally. Any bank that chooses to finance the EACOP in the face of this opposition will show itself to be among the most irresponsible in the industry. Banks linked to this project or to its backers need to respond and make clear that they will not get involved.”

Landry Ninteretse, the 350 Africa Regional Director said: “At a time when the international scientific community is telling us that the world cannot absorb any new fossil fuel developments if we are to tackle the climate crisis, the EACOP that threatens to destroy the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people, while affecting a great portion of diverse ecosystems with incomparable biodiversity is still being conceived. Financiers need to be on the right side of history and should be focused on green projects which will positively transform East Africa’s economies for future generations.”

Save Virunga co-founder Christine Lain commented: "This pipeline is a nightmare – it could open up critical habitats in the region to oil exploration and exploitation. A great amount of effort has been made by local civil society and the international community to stop oil exploration in the Greater Virunga landscape that stretches over Uganda and DRC and covers many critical protected areas such as Queen Elizabeth National park and Virunga National Park, and sustains the livelihoods of cross border fishermen communities. If the EACOP pipeline comes, all this effort will be at risk, it will push for the reopening and allocation of new oil licensing rounds in these key protected areas."

New campaign website launched: stopeacop.net

The open letter was launched alongside a new campaign website for the global #StopEACOP coalition - stopeacop.net. The website will keep track of financial institutions, investors and insurers that have ruled out support for the project and will serve as a campaign hub for further public actions targeting the project’s developers and financial backers.  

The open letter can be downloaded here.

A Finance Risk Briefing on the EACOP project from November 2020 can be found here.

Go to:
Start
Related Banks
Related Dodgy Deals

Related banks

Agricultural Bank of China China

active

ANZ Australia

active

Bank of America United States

active

Bank of China China

active

BNP Paribas France

active

China Construction Bank China

active

Citi United States

active

Crédit Agricole France

active

Deutsche Bank Germany

active

Goldman Sachs United States

active

HSBC United Kingdom

active

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) China

active

JPMorgan Chase United States

active

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) Japan

active

Mizuho Financial Group Japan

active

Morgan Stanley United States

active

OCBC Bank Singapore

active

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) Canada

active

Société Générale France

active

Standard Bank South Africa

active

Standard Chartered United Kingdom

active

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) Japan

active

UniCredit Italy

active

United Overseas Bank (UOB) Singapore

active
Go to:
Start
Related Banks
Related Dodgy Deals

Related Dodgy Deals

Projects

target

East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) Uganda

Pipeline Transportation of Crude Oil
There are no projects active for this item now.

Companies

active

TotalEnergies France

Gas Electric Power Generation | Oil and Gas Extraction | Pipeline Transportation of Crude Oil | Pipeline Transportation of Natural Gas
There are no companies active for this item now.
Browse
Home
Banks
Policies
Dodgy Deals
Campaigns
About
About BankTrack
Donate
Contact BankTrack
Publications
Victories
Follow Us
News
BankTrack blog
Facebook
Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Instagram
Affiliate Websites
Fossil Banks No Thanks
StopEACOP
Forests & Finance
Banks & Biodiversity
Drop JBS
Bank of Coal
Don't Buy into Occupation
Vismarkt 15
6511 VJ Nijmegen
The Netherlands

Tel: +31 24 324 9220
Contact@banktrack.org
©2016 BankTrack                Webdesign by BankTrack and EASYmind
BankTrack is a registered charity in the Netherlands (ANBI) - RSIN 813874658
Find our privacy policy here

Stay up to date

Sign up now for all BankTrack's news


Make a comment

Your comment will be reviewed, before being posted