The Ugandan activist Patience Nabukalu came to Turin for the Fridays for Future international meeting. “The global north depends on us.”
Drought and hunger have killed 900 people in the Karamoja region of Uganda. For climate activist Patience Nabukalu, this is news that demonstrates just how differently the climate crisis we are experiencing manifests itself in the global south. Patience Nabukalu is an activist with the Fridays for Future movement and a representative of the Mapa, an acronym standing for Most Affected People and Areas — that is, the people and areas hardest hit by global warming. Reached during the Climate Social Camp held from 25 to 29 July in Turin, Nabukalu shares her perspective with us.
Who and what are the Mapa? Why are they so important to the climate cause?
The Mapa are concentrated in the global south and are on the front lines of climate change. When we talk about drought, floods, hunger, famine, soil degradation… the Mapa experience all of this first-hand. Mapa people like me suffer through this crisis — I myself have lived through these experiences. That is the whole difference with those who live in the global north. This is why it matters that the north listens to our voice.
When you explain all of this at events and in interviews — here in Turin, for example — what do you make of the audience's reaction?
I think the global north is privileged and needs to know more details about what is happening elsewhere. Every country in the world has its own story, as do the people who live there. The global north, however, has no experience of the effects of the climate crisis — and above all, those who make decisions at the political level have no such experience. The greatest challenge is making these people understand what climate change actually means in concrete terms. They must listen to our voice, because we are not telling a story. Do we depend on the north? Yes, but the north depends on us, given that it is in the global south that societies extract the resources for their economies.
On that note, you have been fighting against Eacop for years. What is it?
Eacop stands for East African Crude Oil Pipeline and is a massive oil pipeline under construction in East Africa, designed to transport crude oil from Uganda's oil fields to the port of Tanga, in Tanzania, on the Indian Ocean. More than 1,400 kilometres through the heart of Africa: imagine how many natural resources will be devastated by a project of this kind. And how many families: we are talking, to be precise, about 178 villages in Uganda and 231 in Tanzania, and the pipeline works will prevent children from going to school, local fishermen from fishing, farmers from working their fields, and will also impact local water resources, the wetlands and the lakes along its route. Once operational, it will produce 34 million tonnes of CO2 per year — six times Uganda's annual emissions.
Who is behind this project?
The pipeline is 62 per cent owned by Total, 8 per cent by Chinese company Cnooc, with the Ugandan government holding a 15 per cent stake and the Tanzanian government 15 per cent. Total's dominant presence demonstrates how the global north exploits the resources of the south while setting targets it will never be able to meet: how, indeed, will Europe keep temperature rises within 1.5 degrees if elsewhere it is creating these climate bombs, extracting fossil fuels solely for its own profit?
What is your assessment of Cop26 in Glasgow? And what hopes do you have for the future?
As I said in more than one interview at the time, Cop26 in Glasgow was not a success — not at all. First of all, we were not included in the decision-making process. At events like these, the European Union continues to plan how to extract resources and fossil fuels from our land. I hope that at Cop27 in Egypt, substance will finally be given to the empty words and promises made so far. We shall see. I do not place my hopes in political leaders, but I do place them in myself and in the people who are making their voices heard from the ground up. If we continue to witness empty talk without seeing any action, we will have to raise our voices even louder.
