How Global South actors frame the conflict between the right to development and climate action? The case of oil extraction in Uganda

A great deal of research has documented how extractive resources are governed once their exploitation has begun, how transnational actors and factors play a role in extractive industries, and how states stick to a path of dependency towards fossil fuel exploitation., Most of this previous research, however, has not taken domestic politics sufficiently seriously domestic politics. Furthermore, little work has been done on how actors try to combine climate change and development concerns within their narratives. This article fills that gap by showing how actors in a Global South state frame the potential conflict between the right to development and climate action through the case of oil extraction in Uganda. Building on a research design with a broad range of empirical fingerprints, this article shows that there are three framings of this conflict developed by Ugandan actors. The first, supported by the main domestic political actors, frame oil exploitation as an economic imperative for the country’s development with compensation and mitigation measures as policies sufficient to address the ecological imperative. The second one, supported by most of Ugandan NGOs also frame oil exploitation as an economic imperative but advocate the utilization of oil revenues to support renewable energy development in a later stage and then address the ecological imperative. The third, supported by a dozen Ugandan NGOS and a hundred European and North American NGOs frame oil deposits as a stranded asset and advocate that oil remain in the ground in Uganda in order to remain within the limits of a world carbon budget.To achieve a just fossil fuel phase out, we need to pay attention to how actors in the Global South think over fossil fuel extraction.Paying attention to this, gives us the opportunity to have a better understanding of the distributive conflicts related to a transition away from fossil fuels.Actors’ narratives about fossil fuel extraction are more complex than oil as a curse/blessing.To understand these narratives, we must look at how actors frame the conflict between the right to development and climate action.While the actors developing the three framings of this conflict identified in this article disagree on what to do with oil resources in Uganda, there is a consensus among them about the current socio-economic development of this country.This insight shows that redistributive policy instruments such as Just Energy Transition Partnerships, can rely on that consensus, need to be at the core of climate action and set up for states that are about to start exploiting fossil fuels such as Uganda