As the world turns to renewable energy, Senegal is poised to become an exporter of fossil fuels. This move has been met with high expectations, but also with considerable scepticism and criticism.

Ibrahima Thiam, project manager at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Dakar, has been following Senegal's oil and gas boom for years. While he is very critical of the enthusiasm for fossil fuels, he sees great potential in the country's renewable energy sector.

In recent years, Cabo Delgado, a coastal province in northern Mozambique, has become synonymous with vast natural gas reserves and the promise of economic prosperity. At the same time, the extraction of these resources has been accompanied by violent conflict and environmental concerns.

We talk to Alexandre Nhampossa, an environmental journalist from Mozambique, about false hopes and the hypocrisy of Mozambican energy policy in the midst of the climate crisis.

The East African Crude Oil Pipeline was supposed to transport oil from Uganda to Tanzania. Even before the project has reached financial close, it has turned sour. Communities and ecosystems around the pipeline are expecting a trail of destruction and environmental degradation.

In this episode, journalist Onke Ngcuka talks about how women and children are already being negatively affected, and how the #StopEACOP campaign has left some traces of hope.

Oil and gas companies, mostly from the global north, have set their sights on the African continent in the hopes of striking liquid gold, and Namibia has not been spared.

Seismic surveys and drilling for oil and gas have already begun in the Okavango Delta, one of Africa's last great natural sanctuaries, a pristine and rich wilderness home to vast concentrations of wildlife.

Teneal Koorts, a Namibian journalist and Rosa Luxemburg fellow, is here to unpack the fossil fuel projects currently underway in the Southern African country.

As the science-backed calls for the end of fossil fuel grow louder, energy companies are scrambling for raw materials across the African continent, and South Africa’s coastlines haven’t been spared. Social justice reporter and RLS climate justice fellow Lerato Mutsila speaks to me, Onke Ngcuka, about the activity that Total has been conducting on the shores of the country. Mutsila not only touches on the seismic surveying in the oceans, but also delves deeper into the ripple effect that the drilling has on community, culture and socio-economic status of those living in and around the affected areas.

"We are currently on track to extract and burn more than twice the amount of fossil fuels that we're allowed to extract and burn by 2030. And as you know, 2030 on the climate clock, that's the day after tomorrow."

Our guest on this episode is Fadhel Kaboub, an economist from Tunisia, professor at Denison University, Ohio (on leave), and currently working with Power Shift Africa to focus on climate and development policy work across the continent.

Kaboub emphasizes the call for a complete global phase-out of fossil fuels, as proposed by the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative.

Chapters:

(00:00) Introduction Season 2

(01:23) Introduction Fadhel Kaboub

(02:11) Production Gap Report 2023

(04:49) How to get major actors on the table

(08:01) Countering the development narrative

(13:00) Phase-out of fossil fuels und leapfrogging to renewables

(17:14) Pushback by African civil society

(19:18) The Nairobi Declaration and global climate funding

(23:55) Current green energy projects are no solution for Africa's energy need

In this series, we're diving into how countries on the African continent are getting more involved in oil and gas projects. "Dismantling the Fossil Fuel Industry: Fossil Fuel Expansion in Africa,"

The main reason for this? The desire for economic growth. African leaders see fossil fuels as a key way to make their economies stronger. But this argument is very questionable and it comes with big risks. The expansion of fossil fuels harms Africa's unique nature and local communities, and it makes it harder if not impossible to fight global warming.

With the world, especially Europe, facing a gas shortage, Africa's oil and gas are in high demand. This situation is complicated, involving politics and the different powers of wealthy and developing countries.

Our team will be digging into this. We're looking to understand why Africa is betting on fossil fuels and what this means for the environment, local people, and the whole world's climate.

What is your role in the face of the climate crises? 

As journalists from the global south meet with one in the global north it makes room for a controversial discussion on how reporting is done by those who face the brunt of the climate crisis in Southern Africa versus those in a high emissions country like Germany. 

Southern African journalists' Teneal Koorts and Lemuel Chekai discuss the role of climate journalism with Theresa Leisgang- journalist, campaigner and co-founder of the Climate Journalism Network based in Germany. 

She sheds light on the importance of the placement of climate change articles in newsrooms, storytelling and environmental education. 

Climate change affects us all. On this episode,African journalists Tumelo from Botswana and Florence from Malawi tag team to get an insight on the work of the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung in their combat against climate change and their fight for climate justice.

The expert on the matter is Katja Voigt. Head of Department for International Politics and North America also Advisor for Climate Policy at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. The conversation also focuses on the outcomes of the COP26 since Voigt was a delegate. The highlight being the comparison of a ‘Just Transition’ between the Global South and Global North nations. Whether such will be achieved and how this will affect the economies of the developing and developed nations. 

What comes to your mind when you think of images? Arguably the most likely answer would be photographs taken on a smartphone. But what happens when art history, climate change and cartography come together?

We speak to Professor Birgit Schneider from the University of Potsdam about the history and importance of maps in communicating climate change as well as climate change politics and denialism in Germany.