Today, the British Court of Appeal will hear arguments from the British environmental organization Friends of the Earth to challenge UK funding for a natural gas extraction project in Mozambique.

At stake is 1 150 million dollars pledged by the British export credit agency UK Export Finance (UKEF) to develop the offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in the Rovuma basin in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique.

The organization argues that the funding has not been properly assessed in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, and that it goes against the UK's commitment to comply with the Paris Agreement on climate change to limit global warming.

"Not only did UKEF help fund the project, it also failed to assess all the emissions it would produce, misleading [British] ministers about the scale of its impact. This is a complete failure of credible governance and morally unacceptable in a climate crisis," accused the head of Friends of the Earth's legal department, Will Rundle, in a statement quoted by Lusa.

Friends of the Earth has calculated that, over the years of activity, the project will save up to 4.5 billion tons of greenhouse gases.

But the organization says that the local population in Cabo Delgado has already begun to be affected, namely farmers and fishermen, and that more than a million people have been forced to flee in recent years due to the violence and insecurity of terrorist attacks.

Area 1 of the project is under concession to a consortium led by French oil company Total, which had to suspend construction work on the project due to attacks by armed groups in Cabo Delgado province.

Valued at between 20 and 25 billion euros, Total's gas extraction mega-project is the largest private investment underway in Africa, backed by several international financial institutions and includes the construction of industrial units and a new town between Palma and the Afungi peninsula.

Before construction was suspended, the first export of liquefied gas was scheduled for 2024.

A first legal action by Friends of the Earth in the High Court in London ended in March in a split decision between the panel of judges, so the request for an appeal was granted.

The decision of the Court of Appeal is not expected until the beginning of 2023.