Nairobi Declaration: Why the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline is Out of Step with Africa's Climate Agenda

As host of the momentous Africa Climate Summit, Kenya positioned the continent to speak with one voice on the climate crisis. But the resulting Nairobi Declaration clarifies an inconvenient truth: projects like the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline directly contradict Africa's climate priorities.

The declaration underscores Africa's climate vulnerability and reaffirms commitments to the Paris Agreement goals. Among other focus areas, it pushes for clean energy transitions and supporting local communities. Yet the EACOP project contradicts these aims.

The pipeline's significant lifetime emissions - totalling 379 million tonnes CO2e (MtCO2e) for the full value chain of emissions from pipeline transport of crude oil to the oil’s end use by global consumers - fly in the face of Africa's call for urgent emissions reductions. Its route traversing sensitive ecosystems ignores the declaration's emphasis on restoring degraded lands. And its threat of displacement lost livelihoods, and environmental damage disregards the leaders' commitment to uplift smallholder farmers and communities.

Simply put, EACOP is not a solution for Africa’s energy needs. The Nairobi Declaration acknowledges that Africa must pivot to climate-positive development focused on renewable energy and a just transition. Yet EACOP doubles down on fossil fuel dependency, threatening to shackle the continent's future.

Now is the time for bold leadership to align ambition with action. Africa cannot achieve its aims while greenlighting contradictory megaprojects like EACOP that jeopardize nature and local communities.

It’s not lost on us that while the Nairobi Declaration underscores Africa's vulnerability to climate impacts, the continent bears little responsibility for climate change. This injustice demands increased international funding for African climate adaptation efforts. Without such support, the Declaration's commitments will soon ring hollow.

EACOP is incompatible with Africa's stated climate resilience and sustainable growth vision. By disregarding local livelihoods, biodiversity, and emissions reductions, the pipeline obstructs the urgent transformation leaders claim to seek. We call on decision-makers to reconsider EACOP because it contradicts their climate priorities. Ahead of COP28, Africa's leaders must walk the talk by rejecting projects that undermine the Nairobi Declaration's spirit and goals. The time for climate accountability is now.