We, people of faith, spirituality and conscience, guided in our diversity by a shared reverence for life on Earth and committed to climate justice, call on TotalEnergies to immediately stop the Tilenga oil extraction project in Uganda and the giant heated oil pipeline (EACOP) linking Uganda to the Tanzanian coast.
Rooted in the fundamental conviction of the value of all human beings, all living beings and the Earth, we denounce these projects as inhumane, guided by a quest for short-term profit, trapped by an imaginary of unlimited production, oblivious to the urgency of protecting the diversity of life and contrary to the objectives of the Paris Agreement on climate. Indeed, these projects, if carried out, would result in :
- tens of thousands of people expropriated and impacted, suffering serious economic and social effects ;
- adverse impacts and potential environmental disasters from 132 wells planned within the Murchison Falls National Park and 1,443 km of pipeline through biodiverse and fragile natural areas;
- more than 400 oil wells and estimated greenhouse gas emissions of more than 34.3 million metric tons of carbon per year, far more than the current emissions of Uganda and Tanzania combined.
Even now, these projects are accompanied by unacceptable pressure and intimidation of local opponents.
As we ourselves are committed to transforming our practices towards a resilient society where we take care of each other, we call on the French multinational, which recently renamed itself "TotalEnergies", to live up to its new name:
- by making a strong gesture to renounce all new fossil fuel projects, starting with the Tilenga and EACOP projects;
- by making a firm commitment to transitioning its activities to energy efficiency and renewable energies that are accessible to the greatest number of people, starting with the 800 million who still do not have access to electricity.
