Page 13 - AfrOil Week 17 2022

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

NGO presses case against UK

for funding Mozambique LNG

MOZAMBIQUE THE international pressure group Friends of project would produce 3.3-4.5bn tonnes of car-
the Earth (FoE) has asked Britain to withdraw bon dioxide equivalent over its lifecycle, Drill
funding to a LNG project in Mozambique over or Drop reported on March 15, after the British
its high carbon emissions potential. court’s split decision. This, the publication said,
FOE approached the court in London in is more than the combined annual greenhouse
mid-2020 seeking an order against the deci- gas emissions of all 27 EU countries.
sion by UK Export Finance (UKEF) to provide The disagreement between the judges, FoE
$1.15bn to the project, which is being led by the argues, means the judicial review failed on a
French major TotalEnergies. It argued that by technicality and the judgement of Justice Thorn-
funding the project, Britain was going against ton shows that UKEF “misled” ministers during
its climate change mitigation obligations under the approval process and that her ruling requires
the 2015 Paris Agreement. “corrective action” by UKEF or the government
However, two judges hearing the matter disa- even before the appeal is heard, according to
greed with a ruling handed down in mid-March GTR. The other judge, Lord Justice Stuart-Smith
2022, with one saying UKEF’s funding was legal ruled that the British export credit guarantee
and the other saying it was not. They allowed the agency’s assessment of the likely climate change
Washington DC-headquartered conservation effects of the TotalEnergies project was lawful.
group to appeal. Rundle told GTR that he expects the Court
“Our view is that [UKEF] can and should of Appeal to hear the case at the end of this year
withdraw the funding. Normally one High or early in 2023. “[But] in the meantime, we’ve
Court judge is enough for a claimant to succeed got UK Export Finance operating in a situation
and for the defendant to be ordered by the court where a High Court judge has told them it’s act-
to correct its behaviour,” Will Rundle, head of ing unlawfully,” he said.
legal at FoE, was quoted by the Global Trade Rundle added: “That’s really interesting ter-
Review (GTR) as saying on April 20. ritory for a public authority because while they
TotalEnergies is working to extract natural can point to the appeal going ahead, that judge-
gas from two offshore fields to an onshore liq- ment currently stands as law, and they need to
uefaction facility in a project valued at $20bn. respond to that.”
Its licence area holds around 1.8 trillion cubic Responding to FoE’s continuing action
metres of recoverable natural gas and is pro- against the UKEF, the group’s spokesperson told
jected to produce 13mn tonnes per year (tpy) of GTR: “We welcome the judgment and remain
LNG, scalable to 43mn tpy, the French company confident that UK Export Finance follows
says. Most of the output is earmarked for export robust and internationally recognised due dili-
to Asia and Europe. gence before providing any support for overseas
Research by FoE and the New Economics projects. We do not comment further on ongo-
Foundation showed that the Mozambique LNG ing legal proceedings.” ™

Mozambique LNG construction site on Afungi Peninsula (Image: TotalEnergies)

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