{"id":30467,"date":"2016-11-21T02:08:29","date_gmt":"2016-11-21T02:08:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/uk-aid-money-spent-trying-to-boost-british-role\/"},"modified":"2016-11-21T02:07:52","modified_gmt":"2016-11-21T02:07:52","slug":"uk-aid-money-spent-trying-to-boost-british-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/uk-aid-money-spent-trying-to-boost-british-role\/","title":{"rendered":"UK aid money spent trying to boost British role in Malawi oil sector"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Project aimed to make UK \u2018partner of choice\u2019 in industry, but campaigners warn of potential for ecological disaster.}<\/p>\n

The British government spent thousands of pounds of aid money on a project aimed at \u201cestablishing the UK as the partner of choice\u201d in the nascent oil and gas sector of one of the world\u2019s poorest countries.<\/p>\n

Malawi is believed to have substantial oil deposits, including under Lake Malawi, a pristine freshwater lake \u2013 the third largest in Africa \u2013 whose southern shores are a protected Unesco world heritage site. Unesco has warned that any oil activity near the lake risks causing an ecological disaster.<\/p>\n

Kate Osamor, the shadow international development secretary, said the project raised \u201creal concerns\u201d about development spending being geared towards boosting British trade, potentially at the expense of sensitive habitats.<\/p>\n

Under Theresa May\u2019s government the focus of development assistance has shifted towards boosting British interests, with the international development secretary, Priti Patel, saying in September that aid spending should serve both \u201cthe poorest people in the world and the taxpayers who foot the bill\u201d.<\/p>\n

A document obtained by Greenpeace through freedom of information laws and shared exclusively with the Guardian show the Foreign Office spent nearly \u00a330,000 of overseas development assistance funding on a project supporting Malawi\u2019s government in developing the country\u2019s oil and gas sector. The document, written before David Cameron left office, shows that boosting British commercial interests was already an important part of the Malawi project.<\/p>\n

The money came from the Foreign Office\u2019s prosperity fund, which includes among its policy goals a commitment to \u201cwork for a secure transition to a low carbon economy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Osamor said: \u201cThe issue isn\u2019t the amount of money \u2013 \u00a330,000 isn\u2019t a lot in aid terms, although of course it\u2019s a lot to the average person in Malawi. But using money that\u2019s supposedly for sustainable development to encourage oil exploration seems highly questionable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greenpeace\u2019s senior climate advisor Charlie Kronick told the Guardian: \u201cThe UK government is using aid money supposed to promote, among other things, clean energy and climate projects to help the fossil fuel industry that\u2019s causing the climate problem in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s worse, this is happening in a country that\u2019s extremely vulnerable to climate change and where oil exploration is largely concentrated around Lake Malawi, a Unesco world heritage site and one of Africa\u2019s largest and most biodiverse lakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cInstead of using aid money to grease the wheels of the fossil fuel industry, the UK government should help Malawi develop the clean, sustainable energy sources many African countries are racing to exploit.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\nThe document lists among the project\u2019s advantages creating a \u201cmore competent playing field to allow UK companies to compete fairly in a sector in which we are traditionally strong\u201d, and notes that \u201cUK commercial opportunities should emerge through supply chain development\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jack McConnell, the former Scottish first minister who helped develop a wide-ranging partnership between Scotland and Malawi, said: \u201cMalawi faces a huge budget deficit and I am sure the UK government would like to help the country diversify its economy away from dependency on agriculture, and tobacco in particular.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they have to be very careful that they are helping Malawi and not helping British companies exploit Malawi.\u201d<\/p>\n

Osamor said: \u201cI have real concerns when aid appears to be tied to trade like this. We should be working with emerging democracies but taking care not to destroy their habitation. We\u2019ve seen this fail in Nigeria, where a country got so dependent on oil that the environment is destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for the UK government said: \u201cThe UK government\u2019s aid funding for Malawi was not linked to UK business interests, and the UK has a clear commitment to keep aid untied \u2026 By fostering sustainable economic growth in Malawi, including exploring opportunities in oil and gas, we will help eradicate poverty, create jobs, increase revenue and reduce dependency on aid. This is firmly in the interests of Malawi and the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malawi\u2019s government took its first steps towards establishing an oil industry in 2011, when it issued exploration licences for six oil blocks, two of which overlap with the lake. Two of the blocks, including one overlapping the lake, were awarded to a British company, Surestream, although by May 2015 it had sold 80% of its stake and the operatorship to Hamra Oil Holdings, a company from the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n

All permits were frozen in late 2014 to allow the attorney general to review the licences. But in February this year, four days before a visit by the Scotland secretary, David Mundell, in which he announced \u00a34.5m of additional aid, the president, Peter Mutharika, ended the ban on oil exploration.<\/p>\n

Unesco is alarmed by the prospect of oil activity on Lake Malawi, issuing a statement in which it warned: \u201cAn accidental spill would pose a potentially severe risk to the integrity of the entire lake ecosystem including the aquatic zone and shoreline of the property.\u201d<\/p>\n

It called on companies holding blocks that overlap with the lake to commit to not exploring for oil or gas in protected areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cLake Malawi is an international treasure, with real potential,\u201d said Lord McConnell. \u201cMalawi has extreme poverty and needs economic development, but that has to be balanced with the importance of protecting the lake environment and its biodiversity.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Malawi\u2019s high commission in London said: \u201cThe government of Malawi cares about Lake Malawi and would not want at any point that Lake Malawi would be polluted in any form. Every care will be taken as technology today makes it possible to drill oil in a body of water without causing catastrophic environmental consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drilling would only happen after a \u201cproper environmental impact assessment\u201d had been conducted, he added. \u201cThe fear of pollution is understandable but not necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lake<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Project aimed to make UK \u2018partner of choice\u2019 in industry, but campaigners warn of potential for ecological disaster.} The British government spent thousands of pounds of aid money on a project aimed at \u201cestablishing the UK as the partner of choice\u201d in the nascent oil and gas sector of one of the world\u2019s poorest countries. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[100],"byline":[234],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-30467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","tag-africa","byline-the-guardian"],"bylines":[{"id":234,"name":"The Guardian","slug":"the-guardian","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":78}],"contributors":[{"id":234,"name":"The Guardian","slug":"the-guardian","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":78}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30467"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=30467"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=30467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}