The reopening of coal plants in Europe, while Europeans are still demanding a switch away from fossil fuel-based energy in Africa, is a double standard, wrote Yoweri Museveni, Uganda's president, on his personal blog.
"Europe's failure to meet its climate goals should not be Africa's problem. But that continent's determination to write one set of rules for Europeans and a different set for Africans makes it so", he argued.
Museveni said that while European countries have propagated the unacceptability of fossil fuel investment in Africa and even induced a moratorium on it, now investment is said to be possible if the fossil fuel products are exported to Europe. The president called this "a truly perverse twist" and "the purest hypocrisy."
"We will not accept one rule for them and another rule for us. We will not allow African progress to be the victim of Europe's failure to meet its own climate goals," Museveni underlined.
The Western sanctions and unilateral measures by European governments led to the impossibility of imports of Russian gas to the EU in previous volumes, which has caused power shortages unseen in decades. Against this background, countries such as Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, France, and Germany appear to have decided to turn to coal-based energy, despite earlier climate commitments.
Recently, Western countries have faced several accusations of using the green agenda for pursuing egoistic and neo-colonialist interests. African leaders believe that in an attempt to compensate for the loss of access to Russian gas, the West is overlooking Africa's need to develop energy independence.