Will the African Development Bank (AfDB) keep its promises to pave the way for a renewable energy future and withdraw funding and political support for the failed Sendou coal plant in Senegal, ask civil society observers? A new report, Women Stand their Ground against BIG Coal: the AfDB Sendou plant impacts on women in a time of climate crisis, highlights the deleterious effects that the Sendou coal plant has on people, particularly women, and ecosystems amidst the unfolding climate emergency in Africa. Since 2009, women fishers in Bargny, south of Dakar in Senegal, have been at the forefront of a fight against the Sendou coal power station co-funded by the public African Development Bank (AfDB), West African Development Bank (BOAD), Netherlands Development Bank (FMO) and private Compagnie Bancaire de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (CBAO). The project has already destroyed the livelihoods of more than 1,000 women fishers, undermined the health of community members, destroyed cultural heritage, and excluded local people from decision-making about their future.

Just over a month ago, African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina revealed the AfDB’s plans to scrap coal power stations across the continent and switch to renewable energy. In a speech delivered at the United Nations Climate Summit on September 23, 2019, Adesina told delegates that “…coal is the past, and renewable energy is the future. For us at the African Development Bank, we’re getting out of coal.” Yet the AfDB-funded Sendou coal plant, which began operating in 2018, will generate coal-fired power and pollutants harmful to local and global people’s health for many years to come...

This new Women Stand their Ground report employs a ground-breaking ecofeminist impact assessment framework developed by three partnering organisations, Lumière Synergie pour le Développement (LSD), WoMin African Alliance and Gender Action. By doing so, it lays bare the ecological and climate impacts of a fossil fuel energy system that continues to receive support from powerful corporations and development banks despite compelling scientific evidence that it is a key driver of climate change. The climate and ecological crisis particularly impact the majority of African women who carry primary responsibility, according to a dominant gender division of labour, for putting food on the table and taking care of ecosystems and people...