Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has accused Western countries of hypocrisy over commitments to stop climate change, after governments are investing again in fossil fuels in the face of the energy crisis resulting from the war in Ukraine.
«For several years we have been told that fossil investments in Africa for Africans are unacceptable. Now, Europe is redirecting investments to its own fossil industry. This is pure hypocrisy,» lamented the African country’s leader.
Museveni criticized the partial dismantling of a wind farm in Germany in order to expand a coal mine, calling this measure «a mockery of Western commitments to climate goals».
The president added, through a publication on his Twitter profile, that European countries agree with taking resources from Africa for their own energy interests, while they are against the development of fossil fuel projects for the benefit of Africans.
«We will not accept one rule for them and another for us, it is morally insolvent for Europeans,» he asserted, before stressing that «Europe’s failure to meet climate targets should not be Africa’s problem.»
«Western money has been poured into wind and solar projects that receive the applause of the virtuous in the corridors of congress and chancelleries of Europe, but that leave Africans without electricity when the wind does not blow, and the sun does not shine,» Museveni criticized.
According to IEA estimates, this diversification would enable 600 million people to be lifted out of energy poverty by 2030, he said.
