A gas project in Mozambique could land a British credit agency in court for a second time following a campaign by advocacy NGO Oil Change International. In June, the group wrote to the UK Export Finance agency (UKEF), demanding it cancel its 2020 $1.15 billion taxpayer-funded financing agreement with TotalEnergies’ Mozambique Liquefied Natural Gas project, or face litigation over breaching international human rights obligations.
In 2021, France’s TotalEnergies paused construction on the project in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, after insurgents attacked the main town of Palma, killing over a thousand people including a UK citizen. As the $24 billion project restarts, TotalEnergies needs funders to reaffirm support.
Even before extraction, the project has already fuelled a war between insurgents and the Mozambican military, which is accused of brutality and sexual violence toward civilians. The conflict has displaced around one million people internally. Amid ongoing post-election protests, rife with police violence and repression, local and international activists say the project can only further destabilise the debt-ridden country.
It is not the first time UKEF has faced legal action. In 2021, Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with support from their Mozambican counterparts, took UKEF to the High Court in a judicial review of the lawfulness of the loan. The case argued that the financing decision was incompatible with the Paris Agreement and lacked a proper climate impact assessment, though the review reached a split judicial outcome.
Indeed, environmental analysts deem the project a ‘carbon bomb’, with the construction phase alone set to increase Mozambique’s greenhouse gas emissions by up to 14 per cent. ‘Calling the Mozambique LNG project a disaster is an understatement,’ says Adam McGibbon, campaign strategist at Oil Change International. ‘Keir Starmer, a human rights lawyer, will have blood on his hands if he allows this taxpayer finance to go ahead. He will be mocked on every global platform when he stands up to preach climate action.’
