South African activists take aim at bank during protests over East African oil pipeline

Cape Town. South Africa’s Standard Bank Group, one of Africa’s largest banking corporations with interests in East Africa, faced occupation and noisy demonstrations by hundreds of eco protesters this week as the bank held its annual general meeting.

Protesters angered by the powerful bank’s contradiction of its own stated carbon dioxide reduction targets, said the bank was engaged in “ecocide”, siding with fossil fuel developers for its own profit while ignoring the impacts on local African communities whose lands and natural resources were being despoiled in the process.

The action was focused especially on two ‘investments’, either already made or under consideration by the bank, being the development of a crude oil pipeline in East Africa from Uganda to Tanzania, and the development of the gas fields of northern Mozambique.

Around 400-500 protesters, mostly from low-income communities, gathered at the bank’s headquarters in Johannesburg early Monday, a small number managing to occupy the building’s lobby for about 40 minutes before being physically removed by brute force.

Climate activist Malik Dasoo, whose civic organisation Extinction Rebellion organised the protest, said outside the venue, after being forcibly ejected while attempting to gain access to the bank’s AGM: “We want Standard Bank to stop putting their investment into fossil fuels and to invest in renewable energy for the mass population – where it’s needed.”

Former Amnesty International secretary-general and, currently, human rights and climate activist, Kumi Naidoo, one of those also physically ‘thrown out’ of the bank’s HQ, agreed with that assessment.

“The climate change crisis is with us now – lives are being lost now, except they are not those of the wealthiest, rather, it’s the lives of the most vulnerable people who have contributed least to the tragedy of climate change, which are being lost (in climate emergencies),” said Naidoo.

Top of the agenda of the climate activists, who have targetted Standard Bank previously and who say they hold the bank to be a “serial violator of human and eco rights”, is the much-disputed East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline project, which is under consideration for funding by the bank.

The activists, gathered from around the country to demand a fundamental change of approach from Standard Bank, said the bank had to “redirect its funding towards renewable energy initiatives that prioritise low-income communities rather than catering solely to wealthy clients”.

It should also “divest” from the East African Crude Oil Pipeline project (Eacop) and the natural gas development project, in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province, where a long-running insurgency is being suppressed by Mozambican and other forces.

The Eacop project envisages a trans-regional pipeline, construction beginning in 2025 and stretching 1,400kms across East Africa to transport crude oil from Hoima in Uganda to the port of Tanga in Tanzania.

If given the go-ahead after human rights and environmental impact assessments, the project will be the world’s longest heated crude oil pipeline, but it will not service local energy demand as the oil it is to carries will be export out of the continent, according to the stopEACOP campaign.

Activist shareholder organisation Just Share says Standard Bank Group’s climate disclosures in 2022 revealed that the bank’s involvement in coal mining, oil, gas and power generation from fossil fuels increased by 22 percent from its 2021 commitments, totalling about $6.5 billion, up from the 2021 figure of $5.3 billion in similar fossil fuel investments.

With an estimated ‘just energy transition’ – away coal and other fossil fuels and towards renewables – in S Africa estimated to cost about $25.7 billion, protesters said Standard Bank could, on its own, fund about a quarter of that amount, based on existing ‘dirty’ energy investments.

“Shareholders can and should put pressure on Standard Bank to do that (fund ‘green’ rather than ‘dirty’ energy projects),” said protest organiser Dasoo.

It is reported that, in all, South African banks have financed over $8 billion in African fossil fuel projects in the last six years.

Standard Bank’s actual investments in ‘dirty energy’ contradict the bank’s publicly-stated ‘net zero’ goals, said activists, the latter requiring investment instead in ‘green’ tech, and development of renewable energy systems that do not involve enormous carbon dioxide releases consequent to fossil fuel consumption.

The value of the Eacop project investment is $3.5 billion, and is being undertaken by various major entities, including TotalEnergies, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, the Uganda National Oil Company and Tanzania’s Petroleum Development Corporation.

Standard Bank said following the protests that it was a “potential lender” to the Eacop project, and like others was “relying” on “independent environmental and social” due diligence assessments.

Once completed, the bank said will “make a decision”.

However, the bank said it remained “committed to maximising opportunities for sustainable and inclusive growth across the continent, and managing the risks posed by climate change”.