By Sonia Kwami, 350.org’s Head of Campaigns and Organizing
Based in Ghana and with over two decades of experience supporting teams in more than 60 countries, especially in the Global South, Sonia steers 350’s training, network and partnership building, and global online and offline campaigning programmes
This last week has been an important reminder of where the path for a true brighter future really lies. Communities, activists and ordinary people came together in Uganda and Tanzania to protest against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) – but not only that. They came together to demand investments on a new and socially-driven energy system, a decentralized renewable solution that can truly empower us, the people, and ensure a safe climate for all.
📢 Happening now!
Community members and activists in Tanga are out of their homes to express their opposition to the destructive #EACOP pipeline and raise awareness about its negative environmental and social consequences. #StopEACOP! pic.twitter.com/RNa8T3Z1ZG
— StopEACOP (@stopEACOP) August 29, 2024
If built, EACOP will be a 1,443-kilometer pipeline from Uganda to Tanzania, used for exporting Uganda’s oil to international markets and driving even more money into global elites. Tens of thousands of people along the pipeline’s route have already been displaced, being relocated to infertile land, receiving inadequate compensation or none at all. And to add to this, community members and activists have been facing violence, intimidation, arrests, harassment and even abductions for resisting the project.
It is outrageous! People should never be criminalized for protesting for their rights. It is an unfortunate and familiar story we all know too well: they say they will bring jobs, and they don’t; they say they will bring local revenue, and they don’t; they say they will help people, and they don’t. All they actually do is jostle our communities and livelihoods in the benefit of the profit of multinational companies, banks and national elites. But it doesn’t need to be like that, and we know it.
Since I joined 350 two months ago, my days have been filled with joy and hope. And I’m not saying this insincerely. I’ve been watching a beautiful movement grow and flourish: the REPower Afrika campaign has already changed lives in Uganda and aims to provide electricity with solar installations to 100 villages along the EACOP route by 2025. But more than that, it aims to set an example for the world – bringing real jobs, revenue and opportunities for people at the local level, helping build a more just energy system, redistributing money and ensuring a cleaner environment and a safer climate.
Throughout the last almost three decades, I’ve been working alongside ordinary people and have felt in my bones the vibrant power of communities coming together and taking ownership over their futures. From Africa to the Caribbean, from Asia to Latin America, I’ve been helping shape and build movements to confront injustices and take control over their local realities in over 60 countries, just like it’s happening right now in Uganda and Tanzania. I’ve seen women and men in some mining communities in Ghana demand transparency in mining resource revenue allocation. And young people successfully push for legislation for a Basic Healthcare Provision Fund in Nigeria. So make no mistake: we can and we will prevail.
People march in Accra during the Africa Climate Week, in March 2019. Communities in Ghana have been fighting against coal and for renewables for many years. Photo credit: 350 GROC
Africa has the world’s highest solar energy potential. However, an estimated 600 million people on the continent still lack access to electricity due to high upfront costs, limited financing options, policy and regulatory barriers, according to the Centre for Citizens Conserving Environment. This energy gap hinders education, healthcare, people’s safety and overall social and economic development.
REPower Afrika translates so well what I’ve been fighting for during my whole career: justice, human rights and sustainability. It means transformation, as these solar installations are not mere technological improvements, they provide opportunities for income generation, improve people’s revenue, access to education, they are safer and healthier. It means resilience, as they enhance communal life and give people more access to information and more independence over their lives and livelihoods. It means a cleaner future, as they champion renewable energy projects from the ground up that will help protect the environment and stop the climate crisis.
Communities reclaim the renewable energy potential in Africa, as part of the REPower Afrika campaign. Benin, 2024. Photo credit: Cogito Arts
This is why I am so pleased to become part of the 350.org team at this time. I am looking out across the organization and I see committed and passionate campaigners, communicators and organizers. People who are there to champion our future and scale up action on climate change. From resistance to remedy, it’s time to build our own power.
You can help this initiative, from wherever you are in the world: from asking for more climate ambition worldwide, to demanding funding to renewables nationally and globally or donating to our movement. Join me in cherishing and supporting this revolution!
TOGETHER, LET’S REPOWER AFRIKA!