The Ugandan government is currently working flat out with international oil companies such as Total Energies to construct over 400 oil wells and the world’s longest heated oil pipeline, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). Although touted as a driver of economic development, this large-scale fossil fuel project has already led to numerous unlawful land expropriations and the destruction of the livelihoods of many local residents, repression of critics, the destruction of sensitive ecosystems, and massive long-term social, economic and psychological consequences for local communities. At the same time, civil resistance against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline has been growing for years, ranging from the affected local communities to international activist networks.

Together with human rights activists, we would like to discuss the impact of European corporations’ business interests on people, the environment and the climate in Uganda; the strategies they have developed in times of growing autocracy and shrinking civil spaces, the need for transnational solidarity and the role Austria can play in this.