A group of farmers plans to sue the developers of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) in a British court, claiming the project breaches the Ugandan constitution and climate and environment law.
In a previously unreported letter before action, sent to the developers’ UK-based arm in January, the farmers say they and their livelihoods risk being harmed by climate change which the pipeline will worsen by generating millions of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
Their law firm, London-based Leigh Day, plans to file a formal claim in the next few months, in which it will ask for construction of the pipeline – which will cost around $5.6 billion to build, spans Uganda and Tanzania and is four-fifths complete – to be halted.
The lawsuit has been crowdfunded by donations from over 40,000 people, coordinated by the Avaaz campaign group, which promote the case as “one final chance to stop one of the worst oil pipelines on the planet”.
The pipeline is a joint venture led by French company TotalEnergies, with smaller stakes owned by Uganda, Tanzanian and Chinese national oil firms. But it is operated by EACOP Ltd, a company registered to an office in Canary Wharf, the tallest building in London’s financial district.
Leigh Day solicitor Joe Snape, who represents the group of farmers, said EACOP highlights how corporations in the Global North are profiting from fossil fuel extraction projects in the Global South which also suffer most from their worsening of climate change.
EACOP Ltd did not respond to a request for comment.
Ugandan law tested in UK court
The group of four farmers accuses EACOP Ltd of breaching their right to a clean and healthy environment under the Ugandan constitution, as well as its legal obligations under Uganda’s National Environment Act and National Climate Change Act.
Snape told Climate Home News that Ugandan law has novel clauses allowing people to make environmental claims without having to demonstrate a precise link to their own loss. They just have to show that the action complained of threatens, or is likely to threaten, efforts to reduce emissions or adapt to climate change, he said.
However, these clauses have not yet been tested in court, so it will be up to British judges, if they accept the case, to interpret how they apply in practice.
Leigh Day is keen to use the UK’s legal system because it perceives it as more impartial and efficient than that of Uganda, Snape said. A climate lawsuit filed in Uganda more than a decade ago by a group of young people has yet to conclude.
EACOP has been subject to repeated lawsuits in several countries, none of which have succeeded. A case at the East African Court of Justice, brought by campaign groups against Uganda and Tanzania, was rejected on procedural grounds last November.
A separate ongoing lawsuit in TotalEnergies’ home country of France – a refiled version of an earlier failed claim – cannot stop EACOP going ahead, but it does seek damages from TotalEnergies for affected communities.
Thousands already displaced
The pipeline, which will link Uganda’s Lake Albert oil fields to Africa’s east coast in Tanzania, is around 80% completed according to its developers, with first oil exports possible as early as October.
Thousands of people have already been displaced by the pipeline, with compensation paid and many training schemes – whose quality has been criticised – already completed.
Despite this progress, the farmers’ legal team say that a court could still stop the pipeline from being completed. Any contractual or compensation issues arising from the stoppage and the billions of dollars of sunk costs would have to be dealt with separately, said Snape.
Gerald Barekye, a farmer, researcher and campaigner, from the pipeline-affected Hoima district, will be one of the claimants. He said Ugandan communities were already living with flooding, drought and food insecurity caused by climate change.
“Allowing these oil companies to complete the construction of the EACOP pipeline and extract millions of barrels of oil, which will produce millions of tonnes of emissions, will only make this situation in this region worse and deepen our suffering,” he said.
Agriculture, which makes up a fifth of Uganda’s GDP and employs two-thirds of its population, is likely to be affected by falling yields, rising plant pests and diseases, reduced suitable for crop growing and changes to growing seasons caused by climate change.
As well as the climate impacts, they will argue that the pipeline will have a significant impact on local nature and wildlife from possible oil spills, habitat fragmentation, noise pollution and new infrastructure, and poses a threat to major water resources.
Michel Forst, UN Special Rapporteur on environmental defenders under the Aarhus Convention, has raised further concerns about “serious allegations of persistent and widespread attacks and threats” against environmental defenders in Uganda over the project.
In 2022, Ugandan police arrested nine activists protesting against EACOP. One protester, Nabuyanda John Solomon, told Climate Home News at the time that police had broken one man’s arm and hit another in the eye with a baton.
