Fossil Fuels are a power problem, not just a climate one

The crisis unfolding in Venezuela exposes a truth the global climate justice movement has long tried to separate from climate debates: that fossil fuels drive power, conflict, and instability all over the world. Oil, gas, and coal are not just an emissions problem. They are a power problem.

Oil and gas shape incentives, alliances, and global conflict.

Fossil fuels concentrate power, distort political systems, and create conditions where instability is not an accident but a central feature of these formations.

The tragedy of it all is that when tensions escalate, it is rarely national leaders, corporations, their executives, and other powerful people who suffer the consequences.

Instead, it is communities that are often pushed to the frontlines as collateral damage, including paying for the disarray with their lives.

Actions of the United States to invade Venezuela, a sovereign country, are an outright breach of the United Nations Charter.

Other than for self-defence and to maintain international peace, Article 2(4) of the UN Charter prohibits the threat or use of force against any country’s territorial integrity or political independence.

The charter upholds the sovereignty of nations, irrespective of domestic governance challenges, as is the case in the Latin American country.

The US’s unilateral invasion of Venezuela and the capture of its leader, Nicolas Maduro, therefore, violates this core principle, making the actions illegal under international law to which America is a party.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has cautioned that this moment sets a dangerous precedent – one where resources become a justification for coercion and destabilisation of one country by another.

Africa knows this pattern all too well. Fossil fuel extraction across the continent has often been synonymous with the displacement of people, environmental degradation, and violence against communities that resist the loss of their land and livelihoods.

From oil spills that poison water sources and farmlands to gas projects guarded by armed forces, oil and gas projects have never been about economic growth and empowerment of the people.

The false fossil promise of “development’’ has frequently meant repression, inequality, and broken social contracts.

The events in Caracas serve as a lesson for African countries against the temptation to rely on fossil fuels as a development strategy.

The short-term revenues from oil and gas may be alluring, but the long-term costs are steep and local.

There is no shortage of stories from around the continent and the Global South on how extractive economies deepen dependency and entrench political systems that reward control over resources rather than investment in people.

When economies are built around fossil fuel extraction, these resources become leverage. Control over oil and gas translates into political pressure and military posturing.

Fossil fuels reward centralisation, promote secrecy, and normalise the domination of land, of communities, and of nations.

While the promise of quick revenues and growth remains seductive, the continent’s experience exposes the contradictions at the heart of the fossil fuel model—one that delivers wealth for a handful of mostly powerful countries, corporations, and local elites while entrenching inequality, conflict, and dependency among the poor.

This reality underscores the need for a renewed Africa-led vision of development that is equitable, sustainable, and aligned with a just energy future, rather than one anchored in extractive promises that repeatedly fail African and Global South communities.

That is why the transition away from fossil fuels matters far beyond climate targets or net-zero pledges. It is one of the few structural shifts capable of addressing environmental destruction while also lowering geopolitical risks.

Weakening the grip of extraction-based power reduces the incentives that turn energy into a violent weapon.

Africa does not need to repeat the mistakes of others to prosper. The continent holds immense renewable energy potential, notably solar, wind, geothermal, and hydro.

These resources can drive development without sacrificing frontline communities or the sovereignty of countries.

Renewables offer a different political economy; one that is harder to monopolise, less vulnerable to external pressure, and better suited to decentralise prosperity and energy access.

These benefits do not in any way suggest that renewable energy is automatically just. Poorly governed transitions can reproduce and worsen inequalities.

But the direction of travel matters. Distributed energy systems create space for more democratic control, local value creation, and resilience against external interference.

This democratic control is particularly important in the arena of Africa’s critical and strategic minerals and even fossil energy products. In recent years, there has been intensified international competition among power industry players and countries to secure these resources.

Many analysts see the US’s interventions in the DRC conflict as a strategic entry point into its bowels of mineral wealth. Africans must remain watchful for such advances.

Venezuela is a warning, not an anomaly. Climate action is not only about protecting the planet in the abstract. It is about dismantling systems that create conflict and repression.

Moving away from fossil fuels is not simply an environmental necessity. It is a peace, justice, and sovereignty imperative for Africa and for the world.

Africa's pursuit of development would be more effectively served by adopting renewable energy systems that can achieve universal access, enable food security and regional industrialisation, while advancing African and global peace and climate goals.

Amos Wemanya is a senior climate advisor at Power Shift Africa