The last two decades should have been a period of accelerating economic development for Africa, South America and much of Asia. Discoveries of abundant oil and gas supplies offered a rescue from poverty, industrial stagnation and poor access to electricity and other basic services.
Instead, they got a man-made disaster, a deliberate slowdown of growth driven not by geographical disadvantage or domestic inefficiency but by a global campaign to divert affordable fossil fuels from poor nations.
Examples abound. At the United Nations’ COP26 of 2021, more than 30 governments and a number of public financial institutions committed to the so-called Glasgow Statement, also known as the Clean Energy Transition Partnership. The objective was to end new public finance for fossil fuel projects by the end of 2022 and instead prioritize “green” energy.
The European Investment Bank stopped financing all fossil fuel projects by the end of 2021, affecting billions in planned natural gas infrastructure. Major European pension funds and commercial institutions – BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Société Générale – reduced or eliminated support for development projects for oil, natural gas and coal, citing targets to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
The coercion was unequivocal: Pursue fossil fuels and lose access to Western capital. The opposition to hydrocarbons was embraced by Western nonprofit organizations and even by people who had made money from oil.
Just Stop Oil, a malicious anti-fossil fuel outfit, has been bankrolled by the Climate Emergency Fund and Hollywood filmmaker Adam McKay, maker of the alarmist movie Don’t Look Up. The fund draws heavily on contributions from Aileen Getty, heir to the Getty oil fortune, and other wealthy donors.
Rainforest Action Network, Sunrise Movement, Oil Change International, and 350.org are just a handful of so-called non-profit organizations that inject funds into domestic campaigns across the developing world.
Oilwatch Africa, openly provides support to groups working against fossil fuel expansion, offering direct financial incentives to oppose developmental projects. In August, the African Energy Chamber (AEC) explicitly accused "foreign-funded NGOs" of using litigation to block Shell's offshore exploration in southern Africa’s Orange Basin.
The AEC described these challenges as "disruptive, meritless legal challenges" that threaten energy security, economic growth, and job creation in countries facing high unemployment and reliance on imported energy.
“Africa’s per capita energy consumption remains among the lowest globally, underscoring the urgent need for infrastructure development and policy reform,” says the Africa Energy Outlook Report 2026. “Africa’s average per capita power consumption in 2024 was 500 kilowatt/hours (kWh) per year, compared to the global average of 3,700 kWh. … Similarly, Africa today accounts for less than 5% of global oil product demand despite presenting 18% of the world’s population.”
Government budgets in the U.S. and Europe have poured millions into climate initiatives purportedly aimed at “mitigation” and “resilience.” Disguised is the redirection of funds into programs meant to deny oil and natural gas development in regions that need it most.
This is deception by opacity of process. Taxpayers and donors believe that they are funding solutions, but the effect is to derail initiatives that would vastly improve the living standards of developing nations. The current U.S. administration has stopped this, for now, by withdrawing funding commitments to climate programs abroad. But a different administration could restore the fraudulence in foreign aid.
Despite the headwind, in 2024, multiple African states pushed forward with fossil fuel development. From Nigeria’s offshore oil investments to Tanzania’s natural gas expansion, leaders prioritized their people's needs over external pressures. This is a glimpse of the immense potential waiting to be unleashed if only these countries were free of the conditional aid and activist influence that undercuts their energy sovereignty.
Grassroots groups that oppose fossil fuels should be transparent about the sources of their funding and the trade-offs of their positions. If blocking an energy project means a village remains dark or a factory can’t open, such costs must be taken into account.
The truth: Climate policy that ignores the needs of people and contributes to generational poverty is cruel, even when presented with the gloss of environmental virtue.
Vijay Jayaraj is a Science and Research Associate at the CO2 Coalition, Fairfax, Virginia. He holds an M.S. in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia and a postgraduate degree in energy management from Robert Gordon University, both in the U.K., and a bachelor’s in engineering from Anna University, India.