A $4 Billion Oil Pipeline Creates a Climate Dilemma for Africa - Bloomberg
A $4 Billion Oil Pipeline Creates a Climate Dilemma for Africa - Bloomberg
A $4 Billion Oil Pipeline Creates a Climate Dilemma for Africa
The construction of a major fossil fuel project across Uganda and Tanzania is sparking a debate around economic development and environmental protection in one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change.
The TotalEnergies construction site for the Tilenga project in Murchison Falls National Park.Photographer: Badru Katumba/AFP/Getty Images
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”