African oil producers defend need to drill at fossil fuel exit talks

Oil-rich African nations at global fossil fuel phaseout talks in Colombia said Wednesday they would keep drilling to support economic growth, highlighting tensions between climate and fiscal realities for developing producers.

Ministers and envoys from nearly 60 nations met in Santa Marta, a city on the Caribbean coast, for the first-ever global conference on transitioning the world away from planet-heating oil, gas and coal.

The conference has unfolded as oil prices surged Wednesday to their highest level since early 2022, deepening fears over global energy security and underlining risks to fossil fuel reliance as the Iran war drags on.

But this is particularly difficult for developing producers highly reliant on fossil fuel revenue — a message some in Santa Marta have been echoing.

"Not phasing out — phase down. That is the message," Onuoha Magnus Chidi, an adviser to Nigeria's regional development minister, told AFP in Santa Marta.

"We are phasing down, and we are saying that there should be early planning... It must be fair to all."

Chidi said winding down fossil fuels would take time in Nigeria, the world's sixth most populous country and boasting some of Africa's largest oil and gas reserves.

"People are going to lose their jobs... How are you trying to re-engage them in other sectors?" he said, stressing the need for debt reform and other financial assistance to make that change possible.

'Our right'

Senegal struck a similar tone, balancing climate and development priorities after relatively recent offshore oil and gas discoveries in the West African nation.

"We are fully aware of the global challenges that require a transition," Serigne Momar Sarr, a technical adviser at Senegal's environment ministry and its sole representative at the conference, told AFP.

"What we wish to assert is our right to development, exercised with full responsibility."

Sarr said Africa accounted for just a fraction of global emissions and said Senegal would pursue a strategy of using gas for power, industry and exports while gradually shifting to cleaner energy.

"We are making this transition at the same time as our extractive activities," he said.

The conference was convened after frustration with the UN climate talks, where efforts to tackle fossil fuel use — the main driver of global warming — have stalled.

The world's biggest producers of oil, coal and gas — the United States, China, Saudi Arabia and Russia — did not attend, nor did oil-rich Gulf states.

While the gathering is not expected to produce binding commitments, organizers hope it will set out concrete proposals for countries willing to accelerate a managed decline of fossil fuel use.

"Each economy has different circumstances," Spain's Climate Minister Sara Aagesen told AFP.