Meeting International Standards

Unlocking East Africa’s Potential

EACOP is committed to meeting International Environment and Social standards which include:

International Finance Corporation (IFC) Performance Standards (PSs)

Compliance with these standards for both EACOP and its main associated facilities (the Upstream Projects) is a requirement for EACOP itself, its Shareholders and external Lending institutions.

Independent Third Party Scrutiny

Lenders Environment and Social Consultants (LESC)

Since 2020, the group of potential lenders to the EACOP project retained WSP (formerly Golder Associates Ltd) to act as the Lenders’ Environmental and Social Consultants (LESC). The LESC worked on behalf of the Lender Group and were responsible to that Group.
The role of the LESC was to carry out environmental and social due diligence (ESDD) to independently assess and report to the Lender Group on EACOP’s compliance with the applicable environmental and social standards (E&S), including the eight International Finance Corporation (IFC) Performance Standards (PSs). The ESDD was undertaken through a combination of document review, site visits and interviews with EACOP and stakeholders plus identification of environmental and social risks and impacts that the Project could generate during the construction and operation phases.
The final ESDD report was produced by the LESC in February 2025. This report concluded that the ESDD review process did not identify “red flags” against the IFC PSs 1-8 or other Lenders’ standards (e.g., representing E&S aspects and risks that the Project has not addressed, dismissed or intentionally ignored), which may result in significant impacts and/or reputational risk. The LESC noted that over the course of the ESDD process EACOP Ltd has steadily worked to complete various Environmental, Social, Health and Safety actions. The LESC confirms that EACOP Ltd is generally aligned to Lenders’ requirements and has addressed almost all items required to be closed before the completion of the financing agreements, with the exception of one action still outstanding in relation to an upstream facility associated with the EACOP Project.
Going forward the LESC will undertake monitoring visits twice each year to assess project compliance against the E&S requirements and effective implementation of the E&S management throughout the construction phase. EACOP will also issue quarterly E&S self-monitoring reports for the Lender Group summarising compliance with E&S requirements, an annual report will be published externally.

Independent Biodiversity and Livelihoods Advisory Committee (IBLAC)

In addition, there is an Independent Biodiversity and Livelihoods Advisory Committee (IBLAC) that was established in 2013 to provide independent advice to EACOP, TotalEnergies Exploration Production Uganda (TEPU) and CNOOC Uganda Ltd on biodiversity and community livelihoods aspects of the Projects. IBLAC provide advice on how best to conserve and enhance biodiversity, and to improve and enhance community livelihoods within their areas of operation and the wider projects’ areas of influence within the affected landscapes before, during, and after the project.

The IBLAC committee currently comprises seven (7) independent international and national specialists with a range of expertise including biodiversity conservation, wetlands, wildlife management, forestry, marine and aquatic biology, community development and livelihoods. Each year, the IBLAC committee undertakes an in-country visit to both Uganda and Tanzania to see progress with activities and engage with stakeholders. An annual report is published summarising their activities and progress with recommendations.(Annual reports can be found on the link below).