Fossil fuels

WDM condemns the link between public money and Cairn’s Arctic drilling. RBS underwrote loan to oil company one month before it acquired rig for arctic drilling.

A coalition of environmental and social justice organisations in the UK are condemning the use of public money through the 83% publicly-owned RBS to provide finance for Cairn energy that may have enabled them to start controversial offshore drilling in Arctic Greenland.

See coverage on Cairn's Greenland drilling here - Quest for oil reaches Earth’s final frontier - Herald

The revelation was made during the weekend that Camp for Climate Action was taking place at the Edinburgh headquarters of RBS [1] and a few days before the Greenpeace boat, the Esperanza, was challenged by a Danish warship near the Cairn rig. [2]

Edinburgh-based oil company Cairn Energy have started drilling in the Davis Straits off the coast of Greenland, nicknamed 'Iceberg Alley and close to where the recent Petermann glacier broke away. According to research that was revealed in the Sunday Herald, [3] RBS loaned $100 million to Cairn Energy on 11 December 2009, and then on 21 December 2009 it...

Sharon Jordan

Over the weekend hundreds of people concerned about human rights abuses and the environment have gathered outside the headquarters of the Royal Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh. They’ve set up camp for four days to educate and campaign against the root causes of climate change.

After mobilising and helping stop the proposed third runway at Heathrow and a new coal fired power station at Kingsnorth, this growing mass movement is reclaiming our future from government and profit-hungry corporations.

Since the bank bail-out in 2008, the UK government has used a staggering £45.5 billion of UK taxpayers’ money – the GDP of Kenya and Tanzania combined – to prop up the Royal Bank of Scotland.

And RBS has been using that public money to finance projects and companies that are wrecking the climate and threatening human rights, such as tar sand extraction in Canada.

The Royal Bank of Scotland has been a Scottish institution for nearly 300 years, with its headquarters in Edinburgh. The £45.5 billion bail-out has left more than 80% of RBS owned by the UK taxpayer.

We have the right to demand that the government rein in the power of RBS, and the other bailed-out banks, and force them to keep to the highest environmental and human...

By Tim Jones

Politicians break promises. We are told it is naïve to think otherwise. However, society can only function through the making of promises. It is how we collectively agree to work together.

In campaigning, we often have to comment and make judgements on promises rather than actions. During the general election campaign, we rated each opposition party based on what they said they would do. There was nothing else to go on.

Today we learnt that, rather than trying to be the ‘greenest government ever’ the coalition has dropped its pledge to introduce a limit on emissions from new power stations. An ‘emissions performance standard’, if set at the right level, would have prevented new dirty coal power stations from being built, such as Hunterston in Ayrshire or Kingsnorth in Kent.

The promise to introduce an emissions performance standard was made not once but over and over again by both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. This...

WDM campaigners James O’Nions and Caroline Griffin are in Kenya to research the effects of food price rises on ordinary Kenyans. James reports on their first visit to Kibera, the huge slum on the outskirts of Nairobi.

Today Caroline and I visited a part of Kibera. We were there to meet a group of women from Kibera Women for Peace and Fairness. The group, which comprises hundreds of women, was formed during Kenya’s post-election violence in 2007, which had its epicentre in Kibera. Women and children were being caught up in the violence, including the police response, and being hit by teargas and worse.

Kibera Women for Peace and Fairness, Kibera

When the food crisis hit in 2008, the women mobilised again. The daily wage that one person in Kibera is likely to be able to earn is about 50-150 Kenyan Shillings (around 40 pence). Before the price rises, a 2kg bag of maize meal, or unga, the basic staple, was around 50 Shillings. In order to make it into a meal for a family, they also need paraffin, cooking oil, salt, and ideally some vegetables as well. Yet when the price of maize on world...

A new WDM/PLATFORM report released today finds that transforming the Royal Bank of Scotland into the Green Investment Bank would kick start the green energy revolution.  The research, by former Pricewaterhouse Coopers consultant, James Leaton, finds that it would bring 50,000 new green jobs a year, boost the UK economy, reduce the UK's carbon emissions and improve international competitiveness - whilst not increasing the budget deficit.

It has recently been reported that amidst confusion and wrangling between George Osbourne and Vince Cable, the government may scrap plans to invest public money in a Green Investment Bank. Instead the government may rely on private capital to fund green projects such as wind farms, high-speed rail and electric cars.

The report was commissioned by pressure group PLATFORM and the anti-poverty campaigners, World Development Movement, who are campaigning for RBS to end its investment in high carbon projects. They reject the premise that investment in a green economy should be scrapped due to public sector cuts.

Deborah Doane, director of the World Development Movement, said: “It would be completely irresponsible and short-sighted to scrap public investment in a low carbon economy. RBS is sitting on billions of...

The US Senate is expected to approve a landmark bill on Wall Street reform later today, covering bank bonuses, financial transparency of complex derivatives, regulation of hedge funds and food markets. This legislation will send shockwaves across the global financial sector, but WDM fears that proposals for a similar EU crack down of the banks may not be backed the UK government.

US legislators have been under enormous public pressure to regulate secretive and complex derivative trading, which is blamed for triggering the global economic crisis.

France and other European nations are strongly supportive of similar proposals at the EU level, but we are concerned that the UK government could seek to block such reforms and are launching a new campaign next week to push the government to take the lead in pushing for financial reform in Europe. We point to the City of London’s track record of lobbying against EU efforts to force the so-called ‘shadow banking’ system out into the open, and are launching a campaign to get the government to crack down on excessive speculation by the banks.

Deborah Doane, director of the World Development Movement said:

“While the US is passing legislation in this area, the EU is well behind the curve. Because...

Baffled by 'derivatives'? Do you know your 'over the counter' from your 'hedge'? Food speculation is an issue that can get quite technical but here's our jargon busting glossary which will help steer you around the murky waters of financial markets.

Clearing exchange

A clearing exchange acts as the intermediary between the buyer and seller of a derivatives contract. So instead of the buyer and seller interacting directly, the clearning exchange becomes the buyer to each seller, and the seller to each buyer, of a contract. The clearing entity makes the payments to each side of the deal,
covering the buyer and seller from the risk of the other side defaulting. This in turn provides financial stability by insuring both parties against default.

In contrast, derivative contracts which are sold directly between two parties (see over-thecounter derivatives below) can be defaulted on as either side may not deliver either the goods or the money. It was non-payment of derivatives
contracts (not traded through clearing exchanges) which contributed to the 2007/08 financial crisis.

In return for being protected from default, buyers and sellers pay a fee to clearing
exchanges. This protects traders from default by the other party and creates a...

Here is our letter to the Royal Bank of Scotland following the meeting with him after the RBS AGM that was attended by our Scottish coalition to clean up the banks which includes ourselves, Friends of the Earth Scotland, Amnesty International, People and Planet & SEAD.  Also present at the meeting were two representives of Canadian First Nations who are being directly affected by the current tar sands operations...
17 May 2010

Dear Sir Phillip,

Thank you for meeting us at the end of last month in Edinburgh, and for your clear commitment to take our concerns and suggestions to the Board of RBS, and to Sandy Crombie as the senior independent director and chair of the Board's sub-committee on sustainability.
We are now writing, as agreed, to set out specific suggestions and proposals to address some of the concerns we have about the practices, policies and governance of RBS. These reflect the different competences and remits of each of our organisations.
Our concerns about RBS, especially as a primarily tax-payer owned bank, relate to the severe environmental consequences of financing projects and companies involved in exploitation of fossil fuels, and particularly tar sands, as well as to human rights abuses, and other social...

14 May 2010

David Cameron has announced today that his government will be the 'greenest government' ever. We welcome the sentiment but we are sceptical and said that ‘history will judge this government on its green credentials by its policies to cut the UK’s emissions dramatically and getting a fair international climate deal, not by turning off its lights at night.’

Deborah Doane, director of the World Development Movement said:

"The Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition has brought some progress for achieving climate justice. Whilst it's welcome that central government has pledged to cut its emissions by 10 per cent, history will judge this government on its green credentials by its policies to cut the UK’s emissions dramatically and getting a fair international climate deal, not by turning off its lights at night. It doesn't take the scale of the problem seriously, any suggestion that blue and yellow means green government are premature because there are so many unanswered questions about the policies.

"The Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition has brought some campaign successes for climate justice. But it has also left a lot of unanswered questions, and media reports suggesting that...

It's been announced today that Vince Cable will oversee business and banking in the new cabinet. This could signal good news for our clean up the banks campaign.

Working with People & Planet and PLATFORM, WDM has been calling for a stop to reckless behaviour by the banks even before the financial crisis began. Recently we have organised high profile protests targeting the use of taxpayers’ money by the Royal Bank of Scotland to finance high-impact oil and gas extraction, including tar sands that are having devastating impacts on indigenous communities in Canada and on the climate.

Deborah Doane, director of the World Development Movement said:

"We are pleased to hear that Vince Cable, who has consistently spoken out in favour of regulating the banking sector will be part of the new coalition government. Lib Dem policies have been progressive in the area of finance sector regulation, supporting the Financial Transaction Tax, a new Green Investment Bank and intervention to curb speculation through splitting up the banks. Importantly, they also committed at their Party Conference last year to end taxpayers' support for RBS' investments in tar sands extraction. Introducing these policies from the outset would be a real commitment to cleaning up the mess that...

As I write, I’m on the bus, heading north from Cochabamba on the long road to La Paz. Saying goodbye to Cochabamba, after two very different but equally inspiring conferences back to back – the ten year anniversary of the water wars and the People´s Conference – as well as meeting so many amazing people, feels like quite a pull. But at the same time I know that many of the connections and ideas that have come about in Cochabamba will last long beyond the time I have spent here.

The eight hour bus trip seems like a opportunity to reflect on the past few days. I’ve been on the bus for four hours now. The journey began with hints of lush green shrubs and plants clinging to the landscape. ‘Lush green’ should be usual at this time of the year, as the rainy season is just drawing to a close. But, as many people have told me since I arrived, not much rain fell this year, and the land is dry. As the scorched hills role past, the midday sun burns through the window and down on the deep red earth. We pass by parched rivers, and animals struggling to drink from evaporated lakes. The road, though a main highway connecting two major cities, is little populated. From the bus, Many of the adobe mud houses scattering the landscape, seem abandoned. Of course, as an...

We met this morning with RBS executives, including Sir Philip Hampton, RBS Group Chairman, after yesterday's protests challenging RBS’ investments in controversial projects, such as tar sands.  This meeting represented a significant concession on the part of RBS who had previously resisted campaigners’ requests for high level meetings.

The campaign groups have been putting pressure on RBS to publicly commit to stop financing companies that are exacerbating climate change or developing projects without the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous communities.

“I was shocked to hear the Chairman state that RBS involvements in Tar Sands were seen to be so minute, that they hardly knew what the Tar Sands actually are. Eight billion dollars loaned to companies involved in tar sands extraction is hardly minute. Our local communities are feeling the devastating impacts of tar sands each and every day.” Said Eriel Deranger, of the Rainforest Action Network.

“We welcome RBS’ commitment to take our issues to board level discussion; however talk alone is not enough. We remain sceptical that this will lead to changes in RBS’ practises relating to lending in projects such as Tar Sands or Vedanta. The...

We met this morning with RBS executives, including Sir Philip Hampton, RBS Group Chairman, after yesterday's protests challenging RBS’ investments in controversial projects, such as tar sands.  This meeting represented a significant concession on the part of RBS who had previously resisted campaigners’ requests for high level meetings.

The campaign groups have been putting pressure on RBS to publicly commit to stop financing companies that are exacerbating climate change or developing projects without the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous communities.

“I was shocked to hear the Chairman state that RBS involvements in Tar Sands were seen to be so minute, that they hardly knew what the Tar Sands actually are. Eight billion dollars loaned to companies involved in tar sands extraction is hardly minute. Our local communities are feeling the devastating impacts of tar sands each and every day.” Said Eriel Deranger, of the Rainforest Action Network.

“We welcome RBS’ commitment to take our issues to board level discussion; however talk alone is not enough. We remain sceptical that this will lead to changes in RBS’ practises relating to lending in projects such as Tar Sands or Vedanta. The Chair explicitly denied any significant responsibility on...

Pontus Westerberg, WDM's web officer is outside the RBS branch on Threadneedle Street following what is going on and keeping you updated throughout the morning. 

11.57 Back at the WDM office, uploading more pictures and news stories.  I will be linking to them from here during the day. The first photo of activists and the tar sands digger is on Flickr now.

10.21 Outside the Treasury, WDM and People and Planet handing in thousands of statements by the public demanding that the government intervene in RBS' investments in dirty and destructive projects such as tar sands.

09.35 More chanting from the protestors. 'RBS, get your hands out of tar sands!'

09.31 Protestors gather in the street outside the RBS branch. The digger is about to come around again.

09.19 Two of the protestors get on the digger.

09.06 More chanting from the protestors. The digger is going around the block but will be coming back in a few...

Kate Blagojevic, press officer

The PR tactic of organising a meeting with your opponents days before a protest or critical report is launched is as old as the hills. But it can still be disarming.

WDM has been working with PLATFORM and People & Planet for a year on the campaign to get RBS to stop investing our money in dirty and unethical companies and projects. During that time, we have repeatedly asked for meetings with high level reps from RBS to explain why they are the target of our campaign so that they will see that we are talking sense. They have always ignored us or offered us a meeting with their head of corporate sustainability, Andrew Cave.

With no disrespect to Andrew, a meeting with the head of corporate sustainability of the bank that's got a track record of investing in the most unsustainable fossil fuel projects in the world is as useful as a chocolate teapot. We need to get in higher up, with someone who we can talk about the real issues with, rather than getting the corporate, green-washed brush off.

On Friday with just days to go before nation-wide protests, including outside the conference centre in Edinburgh, RBS has...

To the 'people of the world' gathered in Cochabamba, its becoming increasingly clear that climate change is not just an environmental issue but a matter of justice. This week, hearing the testimonies of people from across the world where the impacts of climate change are already pervading into daily reality, has been incredibly powerful. But climate justice is not just about the impacts of climate change, but also impacts from the causes of climate change; the deforestation that destroys the way of life for forest peoples, extraction of fossil fuels, all too often being pushed through the neo-liberal policies of institutions like the World Bank, and mined by transnational corporations, with no concern for the impacts of local people. Even many of the solutions being proposed and implemented are pushing people into displacement and deeper poverty. As I heard one African speaker said today, “As long as they keep pushing false solutions, the climate debt continues to increase.”

This morning I saw Naomi Klein...

Alex Wood, used to be Campaigns and Policy Assistant

On Thursday 8 April, the World Bank Board approved a $3.75 billion loan to the South African energy giant Eskom. The loan was opposed by an international coalition of 200 civil society groups lead by 65 South African social and environmental organisations. Despite a huge amount of green spin from the World Bank the core element of this loan is $3.05 billion for the completion of the 4800 MW Medupi coal-fired power station which will be the fourth biggest coal power station in the world.

The loan comes at a time when it is imperative that the world cuts its addiction to carbon and especially coal. South African civil society is resisting the loan as it will increase South Africa’s already high level of debt by 5 per cent. This debt is especially problematic as, being in dollars, it leaves South Africa further exposed to the perils of exchange rate fluctuations.

Civil society is also protesting that the loan will further entrench Eskom’s monopoly which has allowed it to provide below cost energy to some of the biggest corporations in the world, while the poor pay around four times as much per unit of energy. There are also serious corruption allegations that the ANC will receive millions of dollars...

On March 25, campaigners calling for the European Union to introduce a financial transaction tax staged a symbolic tug of war between Robin Hood and his merry men (and women) and selfish bankers outside the European parliament.

The stunt took place as European heads of state gathered for the spring summit. The campaign, supported by WDM, is calling for the European Union to introduce a financial transaction tax - also known as a 'Robin Hood Tax”. The Robin Hood Tax is a tiny tax on financial market transactions, which, at very low rates of 0.05% or less, could raise hundreds of billions of pounds annually for domestic and international projects and would cost governments and ordinary citizens nothing. At the same time, it would help reduce the high-speculative transactions that were partly to blame for the current crisis.

Over the past weeks, innovative sources of finance, including the financial transaction tax, have gained support at all levels of EU institutions. This includes the European Parliament, which just passed a resolution supporting the tax.

The event was coordinated by a broad coalition of environmental, social, health, faith and trade-based citizens' organizations. It's now up to Heads of State to decide which way the tug-of-war will go -...

In today's budget Alistair Darling announced details of a £2 billion fund for a Green Investment Bank. We are welcoming the sentiment but are sceptical that the amount will make sufficient impact.

WDM is arguing that public money spent by the Royal Bank of Scotland on financing fossil fuel projects will mean that the Green Investment Bank fund will be 'throwing good money after bad'.

Deborah Doane, director of the World Development Movement said: “A Green Investment Bank is a good idea but we need far more than the £2 billion on offer to transform the UK into a low carbon economy. In order to achieve this, Alistair Darling must instruct RBS to use public money for exactly the kinds of projects it wants to fund under a Green investment Bank, rather than pouring billions from the public purse into companies that are heavily involved in tar sands extraction, mining and weapons manufacturing.

"The government's hands-off policy has allowed RBS to scale back its investment in renewable projects since the bail out and to support fossil fuel companies to the tune of $7.5 billion over the last three years. Some of these companies are heavily involved in tar sands operations that are devastating the rights of Indigenous Peoples in Canada and directly contributing...

A window of opportunity

In the run up to the general election, we have a window of opportunity to get politicians to listen to our call for justice.

We need your support to mobilise local activists around the country to demand that potential MPs commit to action on global poverty.

Please will you give £50 today, or however much you can afford to help us mobilise local activists at this crucial time?

• £30 could help pay for briefing reports for local campaigners about what a financial transaction tax could achieve.
• £50 could pay for materials for stunts, such as the hire of a JCB to highlight RBS' investments in destructive energy projects like tar sands.
• £150 could help us found a new campaigning group in the UK.

Watch this short video to find out what you can do:

In solidarity with campaigners in South Africa, WDM has joined a call to the UK government to say no to a World Bank proposal to provide a $3.75 billion loan to South African energy giant Eskom. The project, which Eskom want to use as an excuse to raise rates for people living in South Africa, would increase energy poverty and cause environmental destruction that would hit the poorest people in South Africa hardest.

The project would also increase debt for South Africa which would fall most heavily on the poorest people. Furthermore, the proposal highlights why it is completely hypocritical for the World Bank to be involved in administering funds provided to help tackle climate change. 

WDM are calling for the UK, which is the biggest single donor to the World Bank, to vote against this loan. Below you can read our joint letter asking that Douglas Alexander votes against World Bank funds going towards Eskom’s venture.

Read more about the campaign in South Africa

Dear Secretary of State

Re: Proposed World Bank loan to Eskom, South Africa

We are writing to urge that the UK vote against the proposed $3.75 billion loan to Eskom for the Medupi coal-fired power...

Global capitalism has entered a fundamental crisis of legitimacy, triggered by a ‘perfect storm’ of the banking meltdown, rising energy costs and a spike in world food prices. Governments in the world’s richest countries are looking on in horror as the debt and fossil-fuelled fantasies on which they have built their political mythologies crumble around them.

Amongst those witnessing the recent self-immolation of the financial system have been the world’s two billion poorest people, for whom the credit crunch is a permanent way of life. As a grim footnote to the main headlines about down-and-out bankers, the UN’s distinctly unglamorous Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) recently announced that rising food prices have plunged an additional 75 million people below the hunger threshold in the past year. This has brought the estimated number of undernourished people to a staggering 923 million worldwide.

This is the real evidence that 30 years of financial deregulation, trade liberalisation and reckless fossil fuel consumption has failed spectacularly to deliver just or sustainable progress. The end of the end of history...

WDM are not happy about  today's Royal Bank of Scotland's annual results and bonuses announcements.

As you may know, we are campaigning for RBS to phase out its investments in mining companies like Vedanta and projects, like oil extraction from tar sands that are linked with controversial human rights violations. We are arguing that the bonuses awarded for investments that hurt the lives of ordinary people and the publically owned bank should be benefitting society in the UK and around the world."What really annoys people is what these top bankers are being paid their bonuses for", said Julian Oram, head of policy. "Is it for investing public money into job-creating small businesses, better public transport systems or a greener economy that benefits society as a whole? No. It's for trying to make a quick buck out of dirty and destructive projects like tar sands that make bankers rich but everyone else worse off.

"Until the government directs RBS and the other bailed out banks to linking bonuses to 'doing good' rather than acting with the same callous disregard to fairness, or people and the planet that they have over recent years people will continue to get riled by issue of executive pay."...

Ahead of the 2010 UK general election, WDM policy officer Tim Jones gives a snapshot of where the parties stand on issues that affect the world’s poorest people.

WDM and over 100 other organisations have challenged the major political parties to back a development manifesto, Vote Global. So how do the main parties stack up on key global poverty issues?

Trade justice

For the past thirty years imposition of free trade across much of the developing world has hindered economic growth and increased poverty and inequality. In contrast, countries that have been able to resist free trade have managed to cut poverty and increase employment. Since 1997, the Labour government has supported the EU, WTO, IMF and World Bank pushing free trade on developing countries.

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats also support free trade and the current unfair round of world trade negotiations. The Green Party is distinct in calling for “fair trade not free trade” and for committing to push for reform of aggressive EU trade policies. Plaid Cymru also recognise the injustices of current international trade.

More and better aid

Labour, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, SNP and Plaid Cymru all support spending 0.7 per cent of UK income on aid...

Anti-coal campaigners prepare to first foot the First Minister with 42% '2020' whisky and hundreds of postcards demanding no new coalpower stations.

Applying a fresh slant to the traditional first footing gifts,
anti-coal campaigners presented the First Minister with the
traditional bread and whisky but have replaced the lump of coal with a
box of postcards from Scots across the country urging the Government
to rule out new coal power stations in Scotland.

Research commissioned earlier in the year by WDM Scotland and Friends
of the Earth Scotland showed that homes can be heated and appliances
powered now and in the future without the need for dirty coal-fired
power stations, which are major contributers to greenhouse gas
emissions.

The research, 'The Power of Scotland Renewed', shows that Scotland can
meet up to 143% of predicted electricity demand with renewables alone
by 2020. Equally, in its world leading Climate Change Act, the
Scottish Government has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions
by 42% by 2020; a target which would be seriously jeopardised by new
coal-fired power stations.

Juliet Swann, Head of Campaigns at Friends of the Earth Scotland said:
"The highlight of the year for us was the...

Julian Oram, used to be Head of Policy and Campaigns

Here’s a puzzler: what is the UK’s biggest contributor to climate change? Did you answer coal? Good guess, but no. Transport? It’s a biggy for sure, but not the largest. Farming? A distant fourth.

Give up? OK, Britain’s number one contributor is… the banking industry! And top of the list within the sector is the taxpayers’ very own, and much unloved, Royal Bank of Scotland.

If this sounds improbable, consider this snippet from actuary consultant Nick Silver:

...Embedded emissions from project finance attributable to RBS was 44 M tonnes of CO2 in 2006, greater than Scotland’s national emissions. However, most of these projects were in collaboration with other lenders and the total annual emissions from these projects was 825 M tonnes of CO2, significantly more than the UK’s total direct emissions and 3% of global emissions. So, through its ownership of RBS, the government potentially has a larger influence on global carbon emissions than it does through all domestic activities.

I had to re-read this passage several times over, so staggering were its implications. Staggering due to the...

• Last November's £25 billion cash injection deemed 'unlawful' by campaigners
• Treasury's intervention in bankers' bonuses strengthens campaigners case

Three pressure groups today served the Treasury with their application to the High Court, challenging last November's decision to provide a further £25 billion of public money to the Royal Bank of Scotland.

According to the Treasury's guidance, when determining if and how public money is spent, an assessment of the likely impact the proposed spending will have on human rights and the environment has to be completed before the money can be provided. The World Development Movement, PLATFORM and People & Planet believe that no proper assessment was undertaken and that the Treasury have failed to adequately calculate the negative impact of allowing RBS to invest taxpayers' money into harmful projects.

The same groups took the Treasury to the High Court last year where one of reasons given by the Treasury for not ensuring public money invested in RBS is spent in a way consistent with its own commitments on human rights and climate change is that such a restriction would be harmful to the “financial stability” of the bank. The Treasury also argued that to use RBS’ need for capital as a mechanism...

Kate Blagojevic, used to be Press Officer

The post-Copenhagen showdown has featured politicians, NGOs and commentators like George Monbiot and Mark Lynas slogging it out over whether to blame the US or China, for the lack of progress in Copenhagen. All reminiscent of our 2007 report; Blame it on China?

Yesterday it got a little more personal when Mark Lynas, in the New Statesman, suggested that it is wrong to call for climate justice. Mark accuses the World Development Movement of saying “anything calling into question the roles of developing countries must be a plot by the rich former colonial powers”. I have trawled our website and can't remember writing that. Perhaps he is referring to the fact that we were tough on Obama;...

Tim Jones, used to be policy officer

From Copenhagen

Last night I had my first decent sleep since Sunday. Having been stuck in the Bella Centre for most of the week, yesterday was the first time I had been out in daylight since last Monday.

I am one of the lucky ones; when final negotiations were happening on Saturday morning, Ed Miliband probably hadn't slept since Wednesday night.

It was into this tiredness that President Obama cast his judgement on the fate of millions of people. Late on Friday, he announced to the world's media that a consensus deal had been struck. With reports of a 'meaningful' deal on the front pages of a major news website, the propoganda war had begun.

But it soon became apparent that the President had lied to the world. The 'deal' was between just four countries . The EU couldn't decide what it thought. Most developing countries were in complete confusion about what was happening.

I joined queues of people at photocopiers in the Bella Centre trying to get their hands on 'the deal'. I thought I was out of the loop, until I saw many country negotiators behind me trying to find out what had been agreed in their name.

Last week we...

Yesterday afternoon the Guardian published a comment piece by WDM's policy officer Tim Jones and Nick Dearden from Jubilee Debt Campaign about what's going on in Copenhagen and the repression of activists outside who are demanding climate justice. A letter by a wider group of organisations including us was also published in the print newspaper today.

Copenhagen: the sound of silence

Denmark's reputation is being destroyed by police action outside the summit and the gagging of NGOs and poor nations inside
Nick Dearden and Tim Jones

The problem the Danish government faces gets bigger by the hour. Clearly the government is desperate for the UN climate summit in Copenhagen to be seen as a success, regardless of whether the deal done is capable of slowing down climate change in a just way. But it is faced with an ever-swelling army of critics who believe this issue is too important for a stitched-up compromise, negotiated late at night between corporate lobbyists and rich-country governments in conference hotel rooms.

Read the full article on the Guardian's Comment is Free

Letter: Protest curtailed in Copenhagen

...

Just back from Copenhagen

As you walk out of the Bella Centre in Copenhagen, where the main talks are taking place, you’ll find yourself accosted by an absurd small group of protestors accusing the British government of genocide for believing in climate change, and pushing a political agreement on the rest of the world. I didn’t take their leaflet, as doing so would be giving them a level of legitimacy they certainly don’t deserve. No climate denier does, but this one was extreme.

But its not the extremists I’m worried about – it’s the leaders of countries, like ours, that are failing to take bold action that really will make a difference. Safely back home, and warmly wrapped in a duvet this morning against the bitter outside cold, I listened to the Bolivian representative on Radio 4’s Today Programme, Angélica Navarro, remind us of the urgency of the situation. While the developed world waxes and wanes over a two degree warming target (still considered overly ambitious by the richest countries) she stated that two degrees in the global north, is really four degrees in Africa and Latin America. Melting glaciers in Bolivia are already impacting people’s very means of survival. And to make matters worse, taking measures to limit us to two degrees still only...

Kate Blagojevic, used to be press officer, writes from Copenhagen

There is outrage in Copenhagen over a lot of different issues that include tar sands; climate finance; the World Bank; coal; nuclear; carbon trading and the very imminent plight of the small island states. There are of course a lot of sensitivities, politics and high feeling amongst the thousands of people from all over the world who have recently descended on this small city for an intense two weeks of negotiations.

The Danish organisers have committed several faux pas already of course, with the leaked draft text that caused uproar and upset. But it appears that even in an attempt to decorate this vast, maze like conference centre, more international anger has been sparked.
 
On the giant inflatable globe in the middle of the centre, the small island states of the Cook Islands and Pacific Islands are nowhere to be seen. To be clear this is not a futuristic scenario that the globe is supposed to be highlighting. More embarrassingly, it appears that they have been forgotten. In an international meeting, to forget to include these islands which are imminently threatened by sea level rises is causing a diplomatic problem that will not be easily solved.
 
Delegates and civil...

We set off early from Lille, where we had been hosted by members of the Confederation Paysanne. We have had an incredibly warm welcome in all the places we’ve stayed, and Lille was no exception. Everyone from the caravan was put up by someone from the Confederation in their home, and we left early on Sunday morning well fed and well rested.

This was just as well, because from Lille we travelled to Brussels where we were being hosted by the Corporate Europe Observatory, an organisation campaigning against corporate lobbying and influence within EU policy. They had an action packed agenda ready for us, and we soon set of for an activist’s tour of Brussels...

Our first stop was the European Commission. The Commission is heavily influenced by corporate lobbyists who have been successful in pushing through aggressive trade agreements and flawed climate policies which favour high carbon industry, intensify the exploitation of natural resources and discriminate against developing countries. The EU’s climate policy is mainly based on carbon trading and other false solutions that benefit big business without tackling climate change.
 

We were joined there by...

A year ago, the British public became the majority shareholder in the Royal Bank of Scotland and to make this inauspicious anniversary, this weekend 40 leading figures including environmental and anti poverty campaigners, faith groups, trade unions, academia, MPs and the author Iain Banks have written to Alistair Darling to call on him to transform RBS into a Royal Bank of Sustainability.

The group have asked the Treasury to ensure that it and other publicly-backed banks help pay for Britain's transition from a high-carbon economy with rising unemployment to a low carbon-society that provides millions of green jobs and better public services.

In the strongly worded letter, the group accused the Treasury of failing to stop taxpayers' money being used by RBS to finance climate change and human rights abuses that spans the globe from Wales to India to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The World Development Movement, People & Planet and PLATFORM have commissioned a report that sets out the business case for transforming the bank into the Royal Bank of Sustainability. The report argues that UKFI, the company set up to manage the government's shares in the bailed-out banks, should take an 'active...

Thank you for taking action with the World Development Movement.

We've sent a confirmation to the email address you gave us.

Spread the word!

Click here to open an email to send to your friends

Are you on twitter? tweet this action (and we'll give you a shout out)

Support our campaigns

WDM relies on donations to support our campaigning work. Join us from £3 a month online or make a cash donation here.

Tim Jones

It's easy to deride twitter as superficial nonsense; yet its reach is staggering and important. WDM uses twitter to alert people to our latest reports, actions and titbits of gossip. But for anyone who saw the last episode of 'The thick of it', you will have seen that what starts in a tweeting tea cup can become much more.

We were pleased to see that the good people of One Climate had retweeted our email to Ed Miliband. The email expresses our disappointment that yesterday he missed the opportunity to rule out new coal and is urging him not to allow unproven carbon capture technology be used as a fig leaf to let in new coal power stations.

Our interested sharpened when we saw that Mr. Miliband himself (or DECC's Head of Twitter) has tweeted and responded saying that the reason he hadn't responded to our emails is because:

We set out most environmentally stringent coal policy of any country in world yesterday. Value serious...

The UK government comes under fire today in a new report which reveals that the current climate finance proposals, likely to dominate the weekend’s G20 talks, are likely to increase third world debt, and will be 'grossly inadequate' to tackle the scale of the problem.

The report by anti-poverty groups the World Development Movement and Jubilee Debt Campaign calculates that the UK alone owes a 'climate debt' to developing countries of over £17 billion each year for its contribution to climate change – an amount that is significantly more than that pledged so far.

They issued a stark warning that the issue of climate debt will be a 'Copenhagen deal-breaker' for developing countries, and the hope of getting a fair deal hangs in the balance.

The report, 'The Climate Debt Crisis', heavily criticises the UK's current policy of channelling its 'climate aid' through the World Bank, and of promoting the World Bank as the main hub of climate finance. It condemns the World Bank for distributing climate finance as loans, not aid, and for allowing finance to be used for new coal power stations, not low carbon energy investment. The campaigners are...

WDM has also run one-off campaigns on individual transnational companies (TNCs) in support of communities or workers in poor countries. Companies included Disney, Nestlé, Rio-Tinto, Shell and P&O.

Mining - Rio Tinto (formerly RTZ) 1996 - 1999

Background

The Grasberg opencast mine lies in the forested hills of West Papua and exploits gold and copper deposits that are amongst the largest in the world.  The mine is operated by an Indonesian subsidiary of the US company Freeport McMoran, in which Rio Tinto has a significant share.  The company has transformed the rainforest into a vast complex of mines, roads, towns and the world's longest tramway.  But local people have not benefited.  Instead, they have seen their hunting ground taken over, their rivers polluted and their sacred mountain ravaged.  They were neither consulted nor given adequate compensation.  Hundreds of people were displaced by the first mine site and have been resettled in a crowded and unhealthy township. 

Campaign

Since March 1996, WDM, together with Partizans, TAPOL and Survival, has...

WDM campaigned on the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) between 1998 and 1999.

Background

Governments of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a club of 29 rich countries, started negotiations on the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) in May 1995. The MAI was to have been the world’s first investment treaty. It would have introduced new rights for foreign investors to invest wherever they saw opportunities, while restricting the powers of governments to prohibit access, attach conditions on investors or regulate in the public interest.

The MAI would have prevented developing country governments from adopting policies used by all OECD countries and the emerging economies during their development, such as South Korea’s requirements for foreign investors to form joint ventures, license technology and use local suppliers.

Campaign

Details of the MAI became publicly known in February 1997 when a draft of the text was leaked and posted on the Internet. WDM played a leading role in the campaign, undertaking research on the likely impact of the MAI on developing countries,...