Elizabeth Allua Vaah grew up in Bakanta, a village on the Ghanaian west coast. She is a writer and financial analyst, but also an activist. As the leader of the Ghana Environmental Advocacy Group, she fights against illegal mining, nuclear waste, and the negative impact of Western oil and gas companies. She established a fund to combat poverty and improve infrastructure. She tries to generate more attention for the issues she encounters by making online videos.

But she realises more is needed. “It’s like shouting at a brick wall. Nobody cares. Not the Ghanaian government and not the oil companies.” Pressure needs to come from more directions. And so she directly addresses ING Bank – which financed the company Tullow Oil with nearly half a billion euros from 2016-2021 – about their responsibility. “Stop financing these kinds of companies. If you do proper research and come to Ghana to see, you will understand why.”

What is going on?

In 2007, a significant amount of oil and gas was discovered off the Ghanaian west coast. One of the companies that quickly got involved was Tullow Oil, an originally Irish oil and gas giant listed on the London Stock Exchange. The company has a reputation for pushing through contracts that are disadvantageous to local people. Transparency is also lacking: the contracts for the Jubilee oil field were practically signed in secret, with virtually no public or political debate over the terms and conditions [1]. For example, no agreements were made about supplying oil and gas to Ghanaians themselves, forcing the country to import fuel from Nigeria.

Ghana is currently experiencing a severe economic crisis. While the economy was doing well a few years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have severely disrupted the country’s finances. The government can no longer repay the $6.3 billion in debt owed to foreign investors and domestic pension funds and banks. [2]

Elizabeth sees people in the coastal areas living in extreme poverty: “They have resigned themselves to this new reality, and there is a deep sadness that emanates from that. I feel it when I am there.” People are facing rapid and steep price increases; what is enough money to feed a family today may not be enough tomorrow. The end of 2022 marked a new low point: rent, water, gas and electricity prices increased by nearly 80 percent. Food prices rose by almost 50 percent. [3] It is particularly galling that Tullow Oil reported record profits of $1.086 billion in the same year. [4]

A notable detail: the government asked Tullow Oil and other companies taking huge profits out of Ghana to pay more taxes. However, Tullow Oil refused. As a result, Ghana has had to turn to the IMF for a loan.

“Africa is not Europe’s petrol station”

While we know that we must stop using fossil fuels to curb the climate crisis, Western countries in particular, have been signing more new gas and oil deals in Africa in recent years. In Ghana, an LNG terminal for liquefied gas has also been under construction for a few years. [11]

However, Africa must not become ‘Europe’s gas station,’ warn critics like Mohamed Adow of the Kenyan think tank Power Shift Africa. [12] “New fossil projects are being presented under the guise of ‘this is good for Africa,’ with the assumption that the profits will benefit the population.” History shows that this is highly unlikely. He finds this trend unjust, as European leaders encourage their African counterparts to build an industry that will soon be unprofitable as the world shifts towards clean energy. “It’s a cynical attempt to squeeze every last drop of profit from a shrinking industry while it’s still possible.” Others also warn that this will only lead to more debt. [13]

Mohamed Adow calls on African leaders not to fall back into a colonial dynamic: “When European leaders during colonial times told us Africans to jump, we asked, ‘How high?’ Now Europe is telling us to burden ourselves with fossil fuel infrastructure that will strain our economies and lead us to a climate disaster. We must respond with a powerful ‘no’ and instead demand that they support us in expanding renewable energy.” Despite abundant sunshine, only 1 percent of Ghana’s electricity comes from solar energy. As a comparison: in the Netherlands, there are more solar panels than in all of Africa. [14]

Read our opinion piece on this in the Volkskrant (in Dutch).

Extreme heat and soot instead of fish

It is clear to see that the people on the west coast of Africa are not benefiting from their own natural resources. But it goes even further than that, says Elizabeth: Tullow Oil is worsening their situation. “Most people in my community are fishermen. Because Tullow is drilling for oil in the same sea, a large part of their fishing grounds is now off-limits.” The Ghanaian navy stops fishing boats, and this is not always done politely. [6] “All the fishermen are now dependent on a small part of the sea. They often catch nothing at all, and they have no other means of livelihood.”

Another problem is gas flaring: gases released during oil or gas extraction are burned off. Sometimes this is done for safety, but it is often a cheap way to dispose of waste gases. Elizabeth explains, “Above Tullow’s facilities, you see a perpetual flame. People complain about it a lot because it causes extreme heat.” Flaring harms the climate through the release of methane, CO2 and soot. It can also cause headaches, heart or eye pain, and is linked to cancer. [7] “And this happens in an area where people have no access to a doctor or hospital.”

Invasive seaweed

At the same time, the effects of climate change are already making themselves felt in Ghana. The oceans are warming – thanks to fossil fuel companies like Tullow Oil and their financiers – and this creates a favourable environment for sargassum. This type of seaweed is now growing faster than ever before. [8] “It’s a kind of weed-like seaweed that mainly occurs in the Atlantic Ocean,” Elizabeth explains. “But two years ago, it washed up on our coastline for the first time. You could see it from miles away. It was a disaster.”

Seaweed may sound harmless, but once it reaches the coast, sargassum can kill coral and fish because it absorbs all the oxygen and blocks the light. [9] It paralyses daily life along the coast for several months a year, says Elizabeth. In a video she made to alert the government, you can see fishing boats stuck in metres of sargassum. “You can’t fish in those conditions, so people have no income. And once it’s on the beach, it rots, giving off a penetrating smell.” This releases a gas that smells like rotten eggs and can irritate the respiratory system. The seaweed also brings heavy metals from the sea. Health organisations even advise people to stay away from it and, if they live nearby, to keep windows and doors closed. [10] Elizabeth adds: “You can no longer live along the coast, but there’s nowhere else to go. And no one is doing anything about it: neither the government nor the oil companies.”

A call to ING Bank

Elizabeth has a clear message for ING Bank. “Last year, when the sargassum was once again all over the beach, I seriously wondered whether the people who directly or indirectly finance companies like Tullow Oil know what their impact is in the countries where they drill for oil. There are many things they don’t show in the glossy magazines they call their ‘annual report.’ So if you finance these kinds of companies, find out what they are doing. Don’t always trust the pretty pictures, because they don’t tell the whole story. My community is in extreme poverty and their home is in danger. Go there, and you’ll see what I mean. Please, stop financing Tullow Oil.”

_Sources:

1. _{Tullow Oil’s foul play in Ghana | Global Policy Forum}
2. _{Crisis and Bailout: The Tortuous Cycle Stalking Nations in Debt | The New York Times}
   
3. _{Ghana inflation hits 21-year high above 50% in November | Reuters}
4. _{2022 Full Year Results | Tullow Oil}
5. _{Tullow Oil Asked to Pay Ghana Taxes It Says Are ‘Without Merit’ | Bloomberg}
6. _{Tullow Oil’s foul play in Ghana | Global Policy Forum}
7. _{Gas flaring: What is it and why is it a problem? | BBC}
8. _{Blue Resilience: The Approaches to the Sargassum Crisis in the Caribbean | UNEP}
9. _{Sargassum, het kwaadaardige zeewier, bedreigt de Atlantische Oceaan | RTL Nieuws}
10. _{Sargassum: from sea to shore | National Ocean Service}
11. _{Ghana ruikt zijn kans met gas: ‘Het is simpel. Europa heeft gas nodig. West-Afrika heeft enorme voorraden’ | de Volkskrant}
    
12. _{Pas op met fossiele investeringen, laat Afrika niet Europa’s benzinepomp worden | de Volkskrant}
    
13. _{Will Ghana’s gas gamble perpetuate a cycle of fossil-fuel related debt? | The Guardian}
14. _{Installed Solar Energy Capacity | Our World in Data}