Mozambique: CSOs urge Intesa Sanpaolo not to fund Eni’s Coral North FLNG Project due to socio-environmental impacts; incl. company responses
ENI's plans to build a second offshore gas extraction and liquefaction project in Mozambique, called Coral North FLNG, have been heavily criticised by CSOs.
According to comments made by Justiça Ambiental, a CSO based in Mozambique, and Natural Justice, a CSO based in South Africa, the Coral North project and its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) are not in compliance with national and international legal instruments and the project will have “unacceptable harmful impacts should it proceed”. Among other things, the organisations criticise that the EIA did not adequately assess the project's impacts on the health of women and vulnerable groups and did not conduct the due diligence required by the UNGPs for developing a project in a conflict zone.
"A thorough analysis of the impacts of a project like this is crucial for the human rights and livelihoods of the people the project will affect. And this involves not just a consideration of the short-term impacts, but must delve into the political and economic narratives of gas globally. Gas is becoming a riskier pathway for every country, but it seems even more shortsighted in a country like Mozambique where the experience of climate change events is frequent and devastating."Custodio Duma, Natural Justice
The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre invited the project's three main shareholders, ENI, ExxonMobil and China National Petroleum Corporation, to respond to the allegations. ExxonMobil and China National Petroleum Corporation did not respond, ENI's response can be found below.
In October 2024, ActionAid Italia and ReCommon announced that that while Unicredit will not fund the project in Mozambique, the bank Intesa Sanpaolo has – despite calls to do so – thus far not made this commitment.
The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre invited Intesa Sanpaolo to respond to the announcement and to a press statement released by ReCommon in July 2024 claiming that Intesa Sanpaolo’s new rules for operations in the oil and gas sector are inadequate. Intesa Sanpaolo did not respond.