"Standard Bank suspends role in Uganda’s $3.5bn pipeline following NGO letter"

South Africa’s Standard Bank, which was to have been a financier of the $3.5bn East African Crude Oil Pipeline (Eacop), has announced that it is suspending support while it waits for the outcome of an environmental and social impact study.

The bank told Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper that its fossil fuels financing policy set out stringent conditions for lending to fossil fuel projects, including requiring project owners to commit to minimising or reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The decision follows the publication of an open letter written by 263 NGOs and sent to 25 banks to ask them not to finance Eacop on the grounds that it will violate the rights of local communities and will have an unacceptable environmental impact.