Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has given new direction to the debate on climate change, arguing that exploration of oil is not entirely the problem, but rather how the oil is used. Mr Museveni, whose arguments come at the height of a global debate, weeks after the end of the United Nations COP26 Climate Change summit held in Glasgow, was speaking during a Tanzania-Uganda Oil and Gas Symposium in the Tanzanian capital of Dar-es-Salaam on Sunday.
Mr Museveni argues that while his country Uganda is for the movement towards cleaner sources of energy such as nuclear, solar and hydro, there is no running away from the fact that fossil energy is still around for another 40 years. He makes a case for exploring better ways of using the oil rather than in combustion engines and other petroleum products which have been proved to have devastating effects on the climate.
“There is now awareness that some uses of petroleum generate gases that create a blanket effect in the atmosphere that warms the temperature of the globe, melts the ice-sheet and the glaciers and causes the sea to rise and unpredictable rain patterns. That, however, is not the fault of oil. It is the fault of the misusers,” Mr Museveni states in his argument.
He, however, is quick to add that the global shift from the exploration of crude oil presents an opportunity for countries like Uganda which have begun exploration much later than everyone else. He relates this to joining the club when everyone else is leaving; “I cannot avoid noticing an opportunity for some of us that have entered the night club when the notice for banning night clubs was proclaimed. New night club goers will not book and, hence, we shall have the night clubs to ourselves. Could this not be the reason the price of oil is going up?”
Mr Museveni makes a case for recycling products of crude oil, listing safer uses of oil such as synthetic tyres which he says are much stronger than the rubber ones; chairs and car-seats; polyester for textiles to mix with cotton; medicine; bitumen (asphalt); cosmetics; detergents and packages.
“Here, the environment issue is no longer green-house gases but waste-disposal. Can we not perpetually recycle some of those for re-use?” the President states.
Predictions have been made that the use of crude oil will drop and as such prices too. Reuters in April quotes global energy consultants Wood Mackenzie as stating in a report that global oil prices could drop to around $40 a barrel by 2030 if governments push to reduce fuel consumption in step with U.N.-backed plans to limit global warming. The report outlines a scenario where the world acts decisively to tackle greenhouse gas emissions by electrifying transport and industry, thus reducing oil consumption by 2023.
The raging debate on climate change has put governments at loggerheads each blaming the other of making empty pledged to tackle climate change. The recently concluded COP26 was not exception. Analysts of the outcomes of the conference have stated that world leaders present did not do enough to address carbon emissions as a matter of urgency. The Glasgow Climate Pact that aims to reduce the debilitating impacts of climate change was criticised as “not enough”. Several articles labelled the conference outcomes as disappointments.
During the conference, there was an explicit plan to reduce use of coal – which is responsible for 40 percent of annual CO2 emissions, but following pressure from China and India, countries made a weaker commitment to ‘‘phase down’’ rather than ‘‘phase out’’ coal.
Worse still, at a conference hosted by United Kingdom prime minister Boris Johnson also failed to come up with immediate stringent commitments, instead agreeing to meet next year to discuss a path to cut greenhouse emissions in order to keep global temperature rise within the 1.5C range, as recommended by scientists to prevent a “climate catastrophe.”
Ahead of the COP26, President Museveni called on the world to allow Africa explore more than a few selected options of energy. In an article published last month on the Wall Street Journal, the President said that the continent’s development partners including NGOs and donors, among others have the tendency of trying to influence their choice of energy on the growing continent. He argues that because the continent is positioned to become a massive consumer of energy with it 1.3 billion population projected to double, relying on one source of energy is placing all the eggs in one basket and short sighted.
He further argued that the safer bet for the continent is to explore all the available options, especially in the face of climate change and other factors that can quite easily render one option unviable. The President lashed out at views that Africa should take up only renewable energy to safeguard the environment. He argues that renewable energy is not the only source of clean energy. Mr Museveni, underscored the need for various forms of energy if Africa is to win its fight against poverty.
Read President Museveni’s full article here
