The non-governmental organization Friends of the Earth has sent a letter to the UK government, claiming that the reauthorization of 72.6 billion meticais (1.15 billion dollars) in loans and subsidies to support TotalEnergies’ gas project in Cabo Delgado would be “illegal”.
According to information published by the newspaper Político, the project in northern Mozambique has been marked by controversy, including a massacre of at least 97 civilians in 2021, committed by a military unit operating nearby. Work on the site was halted after attacks by Islamic militants in the same region.
TotalEnergies, for its part, denied knowledge of the alleged events and said it had never received information indicating that such events had taken place.
The new British Labour government is considering whether to continue offering loans and guarantees to British exporters and banks that support the TotalEnergies project, which received support from the former Secretary of State for Trade, Liz Truss. British funding was suspended when TotalEnergies invoked force majeure due to the deterioration of security in the region.
In the letter sent, Friends of the Earth warned that the British government’s legal case to justify support for the project is at risk. Lawyer Niall Toru stated that “no government can claim climate leadership and at the same time fund the opening of new gas fields abroad”. He addressed Prime Minister Keir Starmer and other members of the government, underlining the contradiction between climate policy and the financing of fossil fuels.
Toru also highlighted the “horrendous human rights abuses” associated with the project, noting that more recent court decisions have discredited previous judgments that favored the British government. Friends of the Earth has already successfully challenged the government on the development of new oil drilling and coal extraction in the UK.
A spokesperson for UK Export Finance, the body responsible for financing British exports, confirmed that it is in talks about the status of the project and that it has received the letter from Friends of the Earth, promising a timely response.
Climate activist Izzie McIntosh, from the NGO Global Justice Now, called on the Labour government to suspend funding immediately, calling Liz Truss’ original decision “egregious” and arguing that it contributed to serious human rights violations.
For its part, Mozambique’s Ministry of Defense expressed “total openness and readiness” for a transparent investigation into the allegations of military violence associated with the gas installations, although it refuted the accusations of torture and violence, citing a lack of evidence.
