Our public finance institutions are fuelling climate change

(Times Live, Johannesburg, 22 March 2021) In Southern Africa, environmental racism has put poor, black, indigenous, and people of colour communities in the path of polluters and the climate crisis. This past Wednesday, civil society organisations hosted a virtual event to brief parliamentarians about the link between climate change and our public finance institutions (PFIs), specifically the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and the Export Credit Insurance Corporation (ECIC). One of the largest recipients of SA public financing is the Mozambique Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) Project, led by Total, in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. The ECIC and DBSA are providing a total of $920m (R13.5bn) plus an undisclosed amount from the IDC. This financing is fuelling an industry that has displaced over 550 families from their homes, fishing areas and farmland, and left them without livelihoods and reliant on food aid. There is no evidence that the $50bn (R736bn) gas industry currently being developed will benefit Mozambicans: though the country has been a large fossil energy producer for years, only 30% of the population has electricity access. Regional violence is deeply interlinked with the gas industry, with human rights violations committed by insurgents, the Mozambican military and SA mercenaries. PFIs' attitude is seemingly ‘business as usual’. Worse, the ECIC refused to make their EIA available, and ignored a request for public participation in their decision to finance this devastating project.