Africa being ‘punished’ by fossil fuel investment ban – Niger

Niger’s chief criticised G7 choice to cease international fossil gas investments after years exploiting pure assets.

Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum gestures throughout a session on the Africa CEO Discussion board in Abidjan on June 14, 2022. [File: Issouf Sanogo/AFP]

Africa is being “punished” by the selections of Western international locations to finish public financing for international fossil-fuel initiatives by the top of 2022, Niger’s president has mentioned.

The feedback got here inside weeks of a Could 27 pledge by the Group of Seven (G7) industrialised democracies to part out help for brand spanking new funding in international oil, gasoline and coal initiatives by finish of this yr. The ban applies to schemes which might be “unabated,” which means people who fail to take steps to ease or seize carbon air pollution.

“We're going to proceed to combat, we've fossil fuels that needs to be exploited,” mentioned President Mohamed Bazoum at a enterprise discussion board within the Ivorian business metropolis of Abidjan.

“At one level, corporations had plans to mine Niger’s coal. However with these measures, no banks are prepared to commit – we're being punished,” he mentioned.

He made the remarks on the Africa CEO Discussion board, a two-day convention gathering about 1,500 African enterprise executives and politicians.

The West’s choice to chop fossil investments might be detrimental to the financial system of Niger, the least developed nation on the earth in line with the 189-nation Human Growth Index (HDI) compiled by the UN.

The same declaration was signed in November final yr by 20 international locations on the COP26 UN local weather parlay in Glasgow, a transfer increasing a ban that a number of had already imposed on financing for coal.

Senegalese President Macky Sall who was current on the convention supported Bazoum’s remarks.

“Let the African continent be allowed to use its pure assets,” he mentioned. “It's frankly unbelievable that those that have been exploiting oil and its derivatives for greater than a century forestall African international locations from reaping the worth of their assets.”

Sall mentioned he hoped that COP27, operating within the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh from November 6-18, would open the best way to a “balanced settlement which takes Africa’s actuality into consideration”.

Sall additionally mentioned that African international locations had been being hit by Western-led cost restrictions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

“Africa ought to be capable of receive a mechanism from all its companions, particularly the West – a mechanism corresponding to Europe makes use of [to buy] Russian gasoline – which allows us to proceed to import fertiliser and wheat from Russia with out cost difficulties,” he mentioned.

“If we don’t have fertiliser for our regionally grown grain, which is vital in our weight loss plan, we'll face a real danger of famine,” he mentioned, describing Africa as a “collateral sufferer” of the battle.

Russia’s invasion has choked off grain exports from Ukraine, one of many world’s bread baskets, forcing up the price of wheat. The 2 international locations collectively account for about 30 p.c of the worldwide commerce in wheat.

The United Nations warned that 18 million folks in Africa’s Sahel area face extreme starvation within the subsequent three months, citing the consequences of Russia’s struggle in Ukraine, the coronavirus pandemic, climate-induced shocks and rising prices.