The Green Colonialism Hoax: How Big Corporations Are Stealing Africa’s Climate Future

How Big Corporations Are Stealing Africa’s Climate Future

“Western ‘green energy’ projects are displacing thousands—and no one is holding them accountable.”"

The Dark Side of “Green” Investments

As the global race toward renewable energy accelerates, Africa has emerged as a key target for vast solar parks, sprawling wind farms, and lucrative carbon offset schemes. Branded as solutions to the climate crisis, these projects promise clean power and sustainable development. But beneath the eco-friendly language lies a familiar story: forced evictions, land grabs, and exploitation masquerading as progress.

While Western governments and multinationals boast about meeting climate targets, many African communities are paying the price—often losing their homes, livelihoods, and ancestral lands. This isn’t climate action. This is green colonialism.

The Myth of "Clean Energy" Benevolence

Africa holds 60% of the world’s solar potential and vast mineral reserves essential for renewable technologies. Yet instead of empowering African nations, much of the so-called green transition simply replicates colonial extraction patterns.

• Land Grabs Disguised as Green Projects
  In Kenya, the Lake Turkana Wind Power project displaced Indigenous pastoralists without fair compensation, echoing findings from a Guardian investigation.
  In Morocco, European-backed solar farms have occupied ancestral Amazigh territories, reducing access to critical water sources and grazing lands.
  Reports from the Oakland Institute show this is not an isolated problem—it’s part of a continent-wide land grab trend.
  
  

• Carbon Colonialism
  Oil giants like Shell and TotalEnergies purchase vast tracts of African land for carbon credits while maintaining heavy fossil fuel operations abroad.
  In the Congo Basin, Indigenous Pygmy communities have been forcibly removed under conservation programs—only for corporations to turn those “protected” forests into lucrative offsets. Amnesty International has documented similar displacements under the cover of tourism and conservation.
  
  

"They call it ‘green,’ but for us, it’s just another theft," says a Maasai activist from Tanzania.

How Big Corporations Exploit Africa’s Climate Crisis

1. The Renewable Energy Double Standard

While European and American communities often resist large wind or solar farms in rural areas, those same governments and corporations push massive, poorly regulated projects in Africa. The benefits rarely stay local—less than 2% of renewable power generated in Africa directly serves local populations, with much of it exported or used by foreign-owned industries.

Investigations by Human Rights Watch and the ICIJ reveal that “green” projects often leave affected communities with nothing but broken promises.

2. The Carbon Credit Scam

Africa is responsible for just 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet it has become the testing ground for flawed offset schemes.
Watchdog groups like Carbon Market Watch and Survival International have shown how these credits allow polluters in the Global North to continue emitting while displacing people in the Global South.

3. The Mineral Rush for “Green Tech”

The push for electric vehicles and renewable infrastructure has sparked a new scramble for Africa’s minerals.
In the DRC, cobalt mines—critical for EV batteries—often rely on child labor, according to Reuters investigations.
In Zimbabwe, lithium extraction for battery production is displacing farming communities, while profits flow overseas.

The Human Cost of Green Colonialism

The environmental transition comes at a devastating social price:

• Mass Displacements – Over 50,000 Ugandans face eviction under a TotalEnergies oil project marketed as sustainable.
  
  

• Water Conflicts – In Namibia, German-backed hydrogen plants divert water away from local communities, creating tensions in drought-prone areas.
  
  

• Broken Promises – “Green jobs” often go to foreign contractors, leaving locals unemployed despite promises of economic opportunity.
  
  

As one Kenyan herder put it: “They said the wind farm would bring development. Instead, we lost our land and got nothing.”

Who’s Behind This Exploitation?

• Western Governments – The EU and US incentivize land-intensive African renewables while blocking similar projects at home.
  
  

• Multinational Corporations – Companies like Enel, Scatec, and British Solar Renewables dominate the sector with minimal accountability.
  
  

• Corrupt Local Elites – Some African leaders sign exploitative deals for personal gain, bypassing community consent and oversight.
  
  

Fighting Back: Africa’s Climate Justice Movements

Despite repression, grassroots resistance is growing. Pan-African networks like Africa Climate Mobility and campaigns like No REDD in Africa are challenging the exploitation.

Key resistance examples:

• #SaveTheOmoValley (Ethiopia) – Protests against a “green” ethanol project destroying Indigenous farmland.
  
  

• Stop EACOP (Tanzania/Uganda) – Global opposition to Total’s “greenwashed” oil pipeline.
  
  

• Community Lawsuits – Land rights groups in South Africa and Kenya are suing corporations over illegal land seizures.
  
  

Conclusion: Whose Green Future?

The fight against climate change cannot be won through the same extractive systems that caused it. When “green” projects evict families, destroy livelihoods, and strip communities of control over their resources, they are not sustainable—they are a scam.

This is not a fight against renewable energy itself. It is a fight against a global corporate model that hijacks the climate transition for profit, while leaving Africa to pay the highest price.