Deadline for applications: 4th August 2024

Friends of the Earth Africa / International is seeking an Africa Energy Transformation Project Coordinator based in any of the following countries: Cameroon, Mozambique, South Africa orLiberia. Start date: 1st September 2024.

About Friends of the Earth International and Africa 

Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is the world’s largest grassroots environmental network with 70 member groups and over two million members and supporters around the world. We envision a society of interdependent people living in dignity, wholeness and fulfilment in which equity and human and peoples’ rights are realised, a society founded on social, economic, gender and environmental justice and be free from all forms of domination and exploitation, such as neoliberalism, corporate globalisation, neo-colonialism and militarism. Friends of the Earth Africa is the regional African grouping of FoEI.

Background on climate justice and energy in Africa 

Africa has been ravaged by 500 years of colonialism, extractivism, debt and dispossession. The continent bears a huge dirty energy footprint, a development pathway often imposed by global North countries and transnational corporations, while much of Africa’s people lack access to energy and other basic rights to live a life of dignity. Coal, oil and gas extraction have devastated communities, caused human rights abuses, destroyed the local ecology, and polluted the air, water, soil and peoples’ lungs and bodies. Africa and its peoples are already facing horrific climate impacts even though they did the least to create this crisis. It is imperative to end the extraction of fossil fuels and exploitation of the continent’s rich natural resources by northern countries and transnational corporations and support African countries in an energy transformation, towards a people-based, renewable energy future.

The global coronavirus pandemic has only further exacerbated the challenge ahead and highlighted the other inter-related crises such as the loss of biodiversity, extreme inequality, rising unemployment, etc. The fight against dirty energy in Africa is essential for survival, not just of the continent, but also the world. Africa needs an energy transformation, not only to stop the climate crisis but also to provide safe, renewable, decentralised, community-owned renewable energy for all. Such a transformation will only be just and equitable if led by and for the people and communities across Africa.

Africa Energy Transformation Project Coordinator

For this position of Africa Energy Transformation Project Coordinator, we are looking for an organised, experienced and motivated person to coordinate campaigning, network building and advocacy with FoE Africa member groups to stop new oil and gas projects across Africa, promote the narrative of a clean and just energy future for Africa and facilitate the exchange of strategies and tactics among oil and gas resistance campaigns across Africa. We specifically encourage young, qualified African women to apply.

Key responsibilities include: 

• Coordinate and take responsibility for the successful implementation of the 2024 FoE Africa Energy Transformation project.
• Building and strengthening the FoE Africa climate justice network, including convening and facilitating regular online meetings, developing strategies for regional campaigning, convening webinars, capacity development and working closely with the International Climate Justice and Energy program.
• Coordinate and lead the development and implementation of regional positions and strategies for energy transformation in Africa.
• Coordinate and provide strategic support for joint regional and international advocacy at fora such as UNFCCC COP, African Union, AMCEN, SADC, ECOWAS and others, against dirty energy and for an energy transformation in Africa.
• Strengthening links and increase coordination with allied, justice-based organisations and networks in Africa and beyond.
• Providing strategic support to the dirty energy campaigns being carried out by FoE Africa member groups.
• Working with the communications persons to increase visibility of African dirty energy campaigns to key audiences, being a spokesperson on CJE issues, communicating campaign demands to various external targets, action requests, internal communications to member groups to strengthen the network, etc.
• Monitoring, evaluating and reporting on progress of the project
• Possible travel.

Skills required / qualifications: 

• Should have the permission to live and work in one of the following countries: Cameroon, Mozambique, South Africa or Liberia.
• Minimum five years’ experience in working with a social or environmental justice NGO or movements at Africa or international level.
• Experience in developing, implementing and managing regional campaigns.
• Experience in working with diverse groups across Africa including policymakers,
• NGOs, movements, researchers, media, etc.
• Innate sense of justice and passion for the subject, good knowledge of climate justice, just energy transition, and dirty energy issues especially oil and gas resistance.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English including strong spokesperson skills.
• Should preferably speak either French or Portuguese in addition to English.
• Commitment to FoEI and FoE Africa’s vision, mission and values.
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a decentralised team.
• It is critical for the person to function in a fast-paced, online work environment across time zones including e-mail, frequent online conference calls, etc, with excellent communication ability and accountability.
• Motivation to exchange with and learn from colleagues and movements.

Additional information about the position 

The position will begin approximately 80% of Full Time Equivalent.

The contract will run until 31 January 2025.

Salary will be competitive and will be commensurate with experience and based on the local cost of living depending on location.

The coordinator will be working with and accountable to the Friends of the Earth Africa region and to the FoEInternational Climate Justice and Energy program. The coordinator will be managed by the project grant manager at the FoEI International Secretariat.

Process and timeline 

Send your CV (2 to 3 pages max) and a motivation letter (1 page max) to Fieke Jägers at this email address – fieke[AT]foei.org by the 4th of August 2024.

Only shortlisted candidates will be notified and invited to interviews

More info about our organisation is available online:

FoEI website: https://www.foei.org/

FoE Africa website: http://foeafrica.org/

 
In March 2024, we issued a statement following the devastating floods in Mozambique two weeks after being hit by Tropical Storm Filipo. Well, over[1] 56,000 people and 10,000 families suffered losses and injuries, with two deaths reported.

Today, a few weeks after the case in Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Rwanda are suffering a similar fate owing to days of heavy rainfall and flooding. In Kenya, over 200 people have perished in the floods, the Nakuru Dam[2] burst after rain-swept debris blocked the channel and countless others have lost their livelihoods, homes, and resources. In Tanzania, the rains resulted in the deaths of about 155 people and 236 others injured, while 39,185 people (8,011 households) were affected by flood hazards in 14 districts in Uganda[3].

 
According to the International Organization on Migration (IOM)[4], over 630,000 people have been affected including 234,000 displaced as of 3, May 2024, but the numbers are on the rise, says the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

 This unprecedented and devastating climate change-induced flooding, landslides, mudslides, and the destruction of private and public infrastructure including houses, offices, farms, and roads across these countries exposed (yet again) the dangers of our fossil fuel-addicted model of development. The lack of adaptative capacity of our cities and territories, and the lack of preparedness by the governments of these African states and world leaders alike to address humanitarian disasters like this has made the impacts more grievous for the people, especially the poorest and most vulnerable ones.

 Even with records of intense floods and heat waves from the past 5 years, the governments of the impacted African countries have done little or nothing beyond early warning by their various Meteorological Department.

Our comrades in the Rio Grande do Sul state in Brazil’s southernmost are facing unprecedented floods. More than 53% of 497 municipalities were affected. 40 deaths have been recorded so far 68 people are missing, and countless animals lost.

According to available and widely accepted science, for Africa and the world to have a liveable planet, where global average temperatures are kept well below 1.5 degrees centigrade, we all know that there can be no new fossil fuel projects. But this has yet to be the case. We have seen new fossil fuel deals signed around the world, and the scramble for Africa and her resources has continued unabated. Currently, at 1.3 degrees Celsius, Africans are already suffering grave impacts from climate change. What will be the impact when we cross this threshold?

That Africa is said to be vulnerable to climate change impacts is not overstated: we truly are! We have contributed the least to the climate crisis while those who have a historical responsibility for the already exceeded carbon budget have refused to do their fair share by paying the climate debt to us – in the form of climate finance (grants not loans) for reparations, adaptation, and mitigation.

In the wake of ongoing floods and disasters in Africa, Brazil, and elsewhere in the Global South, the mere pennies available for climate loss and damage is a slap in the face to people suffering the consequences. There can be no more delays and no more excuses. The governments of the Global North need to pay their fair share for causing these climate disasters and pay up for mitigation, adaptation, and Loss and Damage in the Global South. We need public, predictable, adequate, and additional finance now. Where there is no climate finance, there is no climate justice says Tyler Booth, Friends of The Earth International Climate Justice and Energy Programme Coordinator .

Friends of the Earth Africa is saying that Africa must define how the transition from fossil fuels to clean renewables should happen. New sacrifice zones must not be created in the name of exploiting critical minerals on the African continent or in search of gas as a transition fuel.

This is an opportune time to highlight the need to transition away from our current model of economic activity and societal functioning. A just transition is an all-of-society shift to a world of fairness, justice, and equity. We demand clean energy for all, fair wages and opportunities to work, a remodeled global economic infrastructure, and reparations from the corporations and governments that have created the climate crisis. The unsustainability of our current system is evident and we need action before the window of opportunity is lost.

Yegeshni Moodley, Friends of the Earth Africa, CJE Steering Group Member.

We are calling on all comrades across the globe: Do not relent in this fight for climate justice. This climate emergency demands the mobilization of internationalist solidarity for care for the displaced and the reconstruction of the cities in the face of the inability of our states to respond adequately to these disasters. This climate emergency demands us to see and collectively address the roots of this crisis, demanding systemic changes that lead us away from corporate-led models of development, and towards people-centered and rights-based alternatives.

 For further communication:

 Nerisha Baldevu

 Friends of the Earth Africa

 Regional Facilitator

 nerisha@foei.org

  

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 [1] https://reliefweb.int/report/mozambique/mozambique-storm-season-2024-central-southern-regions-shelter-nfi-cluster-updates-16-march-2024

 [2] https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/africa/kenya-why-did-the-nakuru-dam-burst-channel-blocked-by-rain-swept-debris-the-reason-says-government-95911

 [3] https://reliefweb.int/report/uganda/uganda-flood-05-2024-uganda-may-2024-floods-2024-05-12

 [4] https://www.iom.int/news/floods-displace-thousands-east-africa-iom-calls-sustained-efforts-address-climate-mobility

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Photo credi: nextradio.ug.org

 

Africa is being targeted by various actors to advance some of the most controversial technologies ever conceived, Geoengineering is one of such awful technologies. We see geoengineering proponents increasingly attempting to normalize geoengineering and confusing the public debate while attempting to take advantage of African policymakers before they are fully informed.

As Africans, we reject the narrative that Africa should be at the forefront of geoengineering research and recognize this as a neo-colonial effort to co-opt African countries into supporting an agenda that is fundamentally against our interests.

To arm Africans with relevant knowledge on Geoengineering to enable them (especially policy makers) to make decisions and stand to reject this technology in favor of Africa and African people, the HOME Alliance Africa working group has produced this very detailed policy brief. Read more

Mozambican communities and their allies are fighting to stop the multinational gas giants and financiers behind LNG projects that will cost $50 billion.

In Mozambique’s northernmost province of Cabo Delgado, multinational giants TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil, Eni and others are developing three liquid natural gas, or LNG, projects. They will cost $50 billion, making them the largest LNG projects in Africa. Only one of these projects has started gas extraction, and already the industry has brought devastating consequences for communities, the land and climate — and has pushed the poor country further into debt.

However, the industry has a thorn in its side: the international Say No to Gas! campaign, which won’t let it get away with its actions without a fight.

The campaign is led by Friends of the Earth Mozambique, known locally as Justiça Ambiental, or JA!. For six years, until last July, I worked for JA! coordinating the international work of the campaign. My ultimate role was to make sure that the experiences of people on the ground reached an international level and platform.

As JA! Director Anabela Lemos recently explained, “The communities we work with have been suffering at the hands of TotalEnergies and companies that have taken everything from them, but they have remained resilient. Journalists and activists we know have disappeared, fishing and farming communities have lost everything. The industry is not bringing any of the ‘development’ they promised, but just pushing already poor people further into poverty.”

JA! works directly with community members in the gas region who are putting their lives on the line. At the same time, it is up to the international partners, who lobby against industry players in the countries where they are based, to amplify the voices of those people suffering on the international stage.

These are voices of people who have been displaced by TotalEnergies to build their Afungi LNG Park that will hold support facilities for offshore gas extraction. At least 550 fishing and farming families were displaced to a village many miles from the sea. They have lost their farmland, and hence their entire livelihoods, and are now living off erratic aid.

The industry has been fueling a war that has been raging for six years, and has already displaced over one million people. This war between insurgents, private security and the militaries of Mozambique, Rwanda and other countries only began when the gas companies became present in the area.

Media and civil society are oppressed in the country, and many who speak out face legal repercussions or worse. One activist that JA! worked with disappeared after raising their voice at a community meeting, and several journalists have been missing for years. This makes resistance inside the country very difficult, and just speaking truth to power or writing an article raising problems with the gas industry is a revolutionary act.

People have lived in fear of both insurgents and the military, who have often extorted families for their compensation money. Many women in communities have faced or been threatened with sexual assault.

At an environmental level, the industry will irreversibly destroy the Quirimbas Archipelago, a UNESCO Biosphere, home to many endangered species of animals and plants. And the carbon emissions for just the construction of one LNG train in the park will increase the greenhouse gas emissions of Mozambique by up to 14 percent.

International pressure builds despite challenges

There are several ways in which international partners amplify the voices of these Mozambican communities.

One approach is through what the campaign calls “industry confrontation.”

Partners from Europe and the U.S. — and where possible, JA! members — attend shareholder meetings to disrupt them, hold actions and publicly ask difficult questions.

In 2021, Friends of the Earth France helped to shut down the TotalEnergies shareholder meeting in Paris by blocking the entrance and forcing the company to move the meeting online. Meanwhile, at COP26, activists disrupted an Eni event by standing up and playing a voice recording of a Mozambican activist.

The campaign has also worked with other campaigns like Shell Must Fall!, Don’t Gas Africa and Collapse Total, which also fight the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline, and the Fair Finance Southern Africa Coalition.

Partners in different countries use different strategies depending on the specific involvement of that country, each adding a different element to the campaign.

For example, in the U.S., where government agencies like the U.S. Export–Import Bank are also funding Mozambique LNG, with $4.7 billion in public funds, Friends of the Earth U.S. has been filing complaints with the bank’s accountability mechanism. Other international funders like the U.S. Development Finance Corporation, African Development Bank and Japanese government financiers have also been targets of complaints.

“The U.S. is an international leader whether we like it or not,” said Kate de Angelis from Friends of the Earth U.S. “So if we are able to convince the U.S. to stop overseas finance for fossil fuels, it makes it much more likely that Japan and other countries will follow.”

Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland took the U.K. government to court in 2020 for a judicial review of its financing of the Mozambique LNG project with $1.15 billion.

Even though the Supreme Court rejected the legal challenge, “the case has been highly significant,” said Rachel Kennerley from Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland. “It posed critical questions for the government over its responsibility to now act in accordance with the Paris Agreement and increased the legal risk around projects like Mozambique LNG.”

Knowledge creation is another important part of the campaign.

Previously, JA! and its partners created a report about funding for Mozambique gas from Export Credit Agencies, which are government agencies that use public money to finance projects abroad. And this month saw the release of a Solutions for our Climate report about Korea’s role in Mozambique LNG, along with a Columbia University report commissioned by JA! and a number of campaign partners on Investor State Dispute Settlements. JA! also published a joint report with the Fair Finance Coalition about South African government financing of Mozambique gas.

In the near future, JA! will be releasing a report with novel research on the complicity of consulting firms in the devastation caused by Mozambique gas.

The campaign has also undertaken creative methods of resistance. In 2020, in collaboration with climate activists from around the world, they did a series of “adhacks” in Portugal, France and the Netherlands, where they pasted fake advertisements for Shell and Portuguese fossil fuel company Galp, on bus stops around the cities. Similarly, in London during the same year, the campaign collaborated with Platform London to paste images on billboards against HSBC, one of the biggest financiers of Mozambique gas.

In 2021, during COP26, activists projected messages on the outside of the SEC building in Glasgow where the meeting was being held. The next year, at a Shell annual general meeting in the Hague, activists placed a wrecking ball outside of the building; and in Denmark, protesters blocked Total petrol stations for several days. The campaign has also produced comic books, short films and music videos.

But with a campaign fighting a major industry, challenges will naturally arise.

“The difficulty is that we are not just fighting fossil fuel companies, we are fighting an entire global system where wealthy capitalists, mostly from the Global North, exploit the poor for fossil fuels which are destroying the climate,” Lemos said.

De Angelis says that there are challenges specific to different governments. In the U.S. for example, “The impacts on local communities and local environment are often very quick to be dismissed or completely ignored no matter what the evidence,” she said. “Japan has also been a major hindrance as it has a very conservative government that has refused to stop supporting fossil fuels and is openly hostile to impacted communities.”

Another challenge is the danger and difficulty of field work for JA!. 

The war has meant that for most of the last five years the gas region has been closed to non-residents, journalists and most NGOs unless they received government permission and were chaperoned by the military.

JA! has an employee based in a community in this region, who works directly with people who live there. But they have been terrified to speak out about their suffering, for fear of reprisal from the government or the military.

‘A lot has changed’

But the campaign has seen the impact of its work along the way. In one community in Cabo Delgado, when women’s presence was required for legitimacy of the industry’s so-called consultation meetings, women refused to attend. In the Netherlands, the Ministry of Finance held an independent evaluation of the government’s financing agreement with the Mozambique LNG project of $800 million, following the campaign’s lobbying. This brought major public and parliamentary attention to the usage of public funds for a destructive project.

Affected community members, while devastated, have felt supported by the campaign. “For us, since JA! started working here in Palma, a lot has changed,” Arabe Nchamo said. “We complained to the white people about not having transport to the beach, and after JA! talked to them, we have transport, tricycles and bicycles. We are grateful. We complained about the new farmland being far away, and JA! worked hard until we managed to get the company to give us transport from the farms to the houses.”

Lemos says that the campaign’s plans now are to continue its work as a watchdog in the gas region, monitoring and publicizing human rights and environmental violations and amplifying voices of affected communities at international platforms. This is done, for example, through meetings with the European Union, United Nations officials, shareholder meetings, in-person meetings with financiers and relevant states, and continuing in-depth research. It will also emphasize the fact that these fossil fuel companies’ actions in Mozambique show how blatantly they are moving away from any chance of a just transition to renewable energy.

TotalEnergies’ Mozambique LNG Project has been on pause since 2021, after a major insurgent attack in the region. But the construction of its park may restart very soon. This has created a window of opportunity for financiers to reassess their funding of the project. And the campaign is putting serious pressure on these players, reminding them that were they to finance this destructive project, they would be complicit in its impacts.

“The Mozambique LNG project is a good example of the colonial nature of a lot of fossil fuel investments,” Kennerley said. “Stopping Mozambique LNG and the gas industry across the country is extremely important because Mozambique is already on the front line of the climate crisis. Its people are already vulnerable to extreme weather and aren’t being served by the current energy system, which has not delivered energy access.”

First published by – https://wagingnonviolence.org

For more details reach Anabela Lemos / JA!

https://ja4change.org/