Climate change

WDM Scotland is the Scottish wing of the World Development Movement (WDM) - a UK-based anti-poverty campaigning organisation with a world-wide reputation for tackling hard-hitting, controversial issues.  We lobby decision makers to change the policies that keep people poor; research and promote positive alternatives; and work alongside people in the developing world who are standing up to injustice.

The WDM Scotland office was set up in November 1998 in order to support campaign activity in Scotland, and to adapt WDM campaigns for use in the Scottish context.  Read about our past successes here, or go to Scotland Campaigns for details of present projects.

There are lots of ways to get involved now - see Scotland Action for details of current action, or why not join a local group?

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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 culminated in a...

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...

Kate Blagojevic

Today, we launched a report showing how banks speculate on foods causing their price to rocket, increasing hunger in developing countries. Yesterday the Mail on Sunday revealed that a hedge fund bought over 250,000 tonnes of cocoa beans, a move designed to make millions for the hedge fund but losses for people in the UK who are partial to a Twix or farmers in developing countries who are finding it impossible to plan what to grow when the prices are rising and falling like a yo-yo.

Banks and hedge funds ‘buy’ cocoa and other food all the time but they don’t normally request delivery and stash them in warehouses in Liverpool and London. Usually, they buy and sell without ever seeing a single bean or grain, they only see money. Prices rise and fall as a mirror image of speculative hot money flooding in and hot footing it out.

You may have heard the author of our report, Tim Jones on BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning. In the Guardian today our report was greeted...

Tim Jones, used to be policy officer

Some of us may have been surprised to wake up this morning to hear that a hosepipe ban may be introduced soon in north-west England following a lack of rain. For the past few years the ‘weather story’ in the UK has been one of cold, wet summers. Those unable to distinguish between ‘weather’ and ‘climate’ have used this story to spread absurd falsities about climate change, such as the Conservative MEP who told me “the world has been in a cooling phase for the last ten years”.

Maybe the lack of rain in the north-west of England will open the mainstream media’s eyes to the true climate story which continues unabated. The decade just ended was the warmest ever recorded. 2010 is so far on track to be the warmest year ever.

Across the world we continue to see how these changes in climate affect real people. India has been suffering from a heat-wave, with temperatures reaching almost 50°C. The monsoon has made a stuttering start, after one of India’s worst ever droughts last year. Over 2 million people have been displaced from their homes by extreme floods in China.

But there...

Dear WDM activists and supporters

My name is Md Shamsuddoha and I work for the Justice and Equity Working Group in Bangladesh.

Earlier this year, I wrote to WDM supporters asking them to email Douglas Alexander about a deal their government was proposing to help Bangladesh cope with the devastating effects of climate change in Bangladesh. Thousands of people across the UK took part in the action, asking the UK not to attach conditions to the money. They also demanded that the money should not go through the unfair World Bank, but that instead it be delivered in a way that is accountable to local people. 

Since these emails were sent, along side other campaigning in both Bangladesh and the UK, the position of DfID has shifted. Though the deal is not exactly as we were asking for, it is a lot closer to what we feel is fair.

I believe these changes only happened due to joint and parallel campaigning in the UK and Bangladesh. Sending thousands of letters to the UK minister really matters, and I'm very much pleased to give my sincere regards and thanks to supporters of WDM who sent emails. It has ensured we’re moving towards a deal that is much fairer and that will help...

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...

“Sin preguntas, sin negociar, el agua es vida” read one of the last billboards I saw as I was leaving La Paz. "Without question, without negotiation: water is life". The right to water, and the fear of losing it, has been a common theme since I arrived in Bolivia. Realising the right to water has long been a struggle for people here, even before the famous water wars in 2000. Now climate change brings a new threats, with melting glaciers and erratic rainfalls putting new pressures on the already scarce resources.

Yesterday, I went to visit the Khapi community at the foothills of the Illimani glacier that overlooks La Paz, dominating the skyline. Illimani has long been said by indigenous Aymara communities to be a guardian of the people. There’s certainly some wisdom in this. Not only is the glacier the source of water for the hundred of communities who live in the hills below it, as well as upwards of twenty percent of La Paz’s water supply (some estimate that it is closer to forty percent), but these agricultural communities are also the gardens of the La Paz, providing...

From what I have seen in the last few weeks, Bolivia seems to me to be one of the most politically engaged countries I have experienced. In my short time here, I’ve already stumbled across a number of impromptu demonstrations. Last week in Cochabamba, as I was walking to visit Marcella Olivera, an amazing and inspiring activist who played a significant role in the water wars of 2000 and an active campaigner on water ever since, and people were blockading the crossroads down from her office. It was hard to know why; even the people in Marcella’s office weren’t sure. It’s hardly surprising then, that 1st May, Labour Day, is a big event in La Paz, Bolivian’s capital.

The Labour Day march had started early in the morning in El Alto, one of the poorer districts on the outskirts of La Paz. Still struggling with the altitude (at over 4,000 metres, La Paz is the world’s highest city), I was glad to that I had friends from the cumbra arriving that morning, providing me with an excuse to join the march until a little later when it reached the city’s centre. Not familiar with the route, we went to Plaza Murillo, the march’s final destination, and followed the sound of the fire crackers in the distance. We came out of one of the small side streets, towards the footbridge...

I’ve been campaigning for stronger corporate accountability for a fairly long time. So it should come as no surprise to me that I don’t generally see eye to eye with corporate executives. But sometimes, just sometimes, you hope the facts speak for themselves – and that those corporate executives would have a sudden attack of conscience. So when a group of us met with RBS executives in Edinburgh after their AGM, we hoped the facts would speak for themselves.

When we were invited to meet with Sir Philip Hampton, RBS Group Chairman, and several of his team in public affairs and corporate sustainability, we of course thought the meeting had an air of PR spin to it.  But we also thought that perhaps, if only because they had made a serious endeavour to move the meeting and accommodate us (Chairmen don’t generally accommodate), they were prepared to move every so slightly on their position.

Canadian First Nations campaigners Eriel Deranger, and Heather Milton Lightning spoke poignantly about what was happening in their communities as a result of the tar sands mining just up river. Human, health and environmental disasters are what the tar sands are all about - an energy resource that’s six-times more carbon intensive than conventional fossil fuels, scarring an...

I’ve been campaigning for stronger corporate accountability for a fairly long time. So it should come as no surprise to me that I don’t generally see eye to eye with corporate executives. But sometimes, just sometimes, you hope the facts speak for themselves – and that those corporate executives would have a sudden attack of conscience. So when a group of us met with RBS executives in Edinburgh after their AGM, we hoped the facts would speak for themselves.

When we were invited to meet with Sir Philip Hampton, RBS Group Chairman, and several of his team in public affairs and corporate sustainability, we of course thought the meeting had an air of PR spin to it.  But we also thought that perhaps, if only because they had made a serious endeavour to move the meeting and accommodate us (Chairman don’t generally accommodate), they were prepared to move every so slightly on their position.

Canadian First Nations campaigners Eriel Deranger, and Heather Milton Lightning spoke poignantly about what was happening in their communities as a result of the tar sands mining just up river. Human, health and environmental disasters are what the tar sands are all about - an energy resource that’s six-times more carbon intensive than conventional fossil fuels, scarring an...

On the final day of the ‘cumbre’, I thought a photo diary would be the best way to capture some of the sights of Bolivia.

1. A bird hitches a ride on the windscreen wipers of the ‘trufi’, the shared taxi, from Cochambamba to Tiquipaya where the cumbre was taking place:


 

2. Two women in traditional dress stand talking at the side of the road near the entrance to the conference:

 3. Stalls set up for the conference participants, creating a micro-economy in itself:

4. A man entertains the passers by to the sound of Elvis’ Blue Suede Shoes:

...

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...

This weekend Cochabamba celebrated the tenth anniversary of its water wars. The small city, nestled at the foothills of the Andean mountain ranges, previously little known to the outside world, suddenly shot to fame in 2000 when cochabambinos forced Bechtel, a giant American corporation, out of town. Bechtel, under a subsidiary called Agua del Tunari, had taken over the town’s water supply in privatisation deal, pushed by the World Bank, that caused water rates to rise by over fifty percent in a matter of weeks. Taking place shortly after the ‘Battle in Seattle’ in 1999 and just before the G8 in Genoa in 2001, two iconic moments in the battle against the imposition of neo-liberal policies on the global south, the struggle in Cochabamba became an inspiration to people across the world, demonstrating what a small group of determined people could achieve.

Two statues reading 'sin agua, no hay vida' (without water, there is no life') and '10 anos de lucha' (10 years of struggle)

The water wars bought together campesinos from the rural...

Over the weekend, party leaders will focus on global poverty as the battle for hearts and minds heats up in the election race. But a ranking carried out by the World Development Movement reveals that none of the three main parties score well on their plans to tackle key international development issues.

The Conservatives fare particularly poorly (3 out of 10), Labour (5 out of 10) and the Liberal Democrats (6 out of a 10) receive a middling rating. The Greens (8 out of 10) come out on top on issues such as trade justice, international aid and IMF reform.

Julian Oram, the World Development Movement's head of policy commented:
"We’re sure to hear a lot of noble words around World Poverty Day from the leaders, and it’s heartening that they all rate the issue as an election theme. But when you look at how the three main parties actually plan to tackle poverty in the world today, you’ll see a considerable gap between the grand posturing of the leaders and the stunted ambition of the policies they actually hold.

"For example, anti-poverty campaigners have been shocked by the Conservative party’s admission that part of the aid budget under a Tory government could be used for British military operations in developing countries. And Labour’s promise to help...

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...

May Abdalla

As Gordon Brown makes his visit to Her Majesty to call a UK election, there is a parallel campaign unfolding in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Ghana.

While we have TV debates over tax, school budgets and prison reforms, people on the streets of Kabul, Dhaka and Accra will be discussing the policies of Brown, Cameron and Clegg with respect to climate change, development, trade and war. Thousands of people directly affected by UK policies will be using votes donated by UK citizens to be part of the process deciding their futures before casting a vote in the May 6 election.

I’m part of a team of volunteers working across four countries rewiring this election to give democracy a place in our global world.

Democracy means a lot more than a vote. Democracy means that we - the people - are the ultimate leaders in our political system. Politicians are accountable to us, and we are part of the decisions that affect our lives.

Nowhere is democracy more absent than at the international level. There is no democracy when deciding issues of climate change, trade or war.

Ghana is one of Africa’s most celebrated democracies and the first to achieve independence in 1953. In Ghana the rice staple is American, local water is sold through a...

Tim Gee

It is 12 months since 35,000 people took to the streets, days before the London G20 Summit, for the Put People First march, calling for decent work, an end to global poverty and a safe climate.

The march was a result of an unprecedented civil society alliance, spanning international development NGOs, faith groups, unions and domestic charities, highlighting the negative impact of unregulated markets on a range of issues.

When the summit outcome was released the G20 communiqué did not deliver the break from ‘business as usual’ that the movement called for. In particular, governments did not seize the opportunity to signal the transition to a green economy and concrete plans for increasing the accountability of the IMF were not forthcoming.

However, other announcements clearly showed the impact of the campaign and were cautiously welcomed, including funds for poor countries, and increasing the transparency of tax havens.

Most promisingly though, the summit signalled a sharp change in rhetoric as Gordon Brown proclaimed the Washington Consensus to be ‘dead’.

Campaigning pressure began to have an impact when G20 leaders’ met again in September. There they tasked the IMF to investigate instruments for a Financial Transaction...

The budget has been widely portrayed in the media as a ‘phoney’ budget or a ‘ballot box’ budget because of the limited amount of 'real' economic policy it contained. But Alistair Darling’s plan for a Green Investment Bank is a huge step forward in our Climate Justice and Clean Up the Banks campaigns. This move shows the government’s recognition that to achieve global climate justice the UK needs to invest urgently in renewable energy and ditch dirty power which is causing climate change that’s hitting the poorest people in the world.

But we still need to convince the Chancellor that although the Green Investment Bank is a good idea there is a huge stumbling block on the path to success: the Royal Bank of Scotland. The Treasury’s £2 billion for green investment is completely dwarfed by the billions of pounds from the taxpayers’ purse that RBS is pouring into oil, coal and gas companies and companies that are heavily engaged in tar sands operations in Canada.

Any plans for a Green Investment Bank need to include RBS, which since the bail out has reduced its lending to renewable energy companies but it's been involved in $7.5 billion in finance to tar sands related companies; otherwise, as we pointed out in...

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:

Environmental and anti-poverty groups in the UK have reacted angrily to the Royal Bank of Scotland opening an 'oil and gas advisory' office in Calgary. RBS, which is 84% owned by the UK public, has been the subject of controversy in the UK over its record of being the UK bank most heavily involved in financing fossil fuel projects and companies around the world

There has recently been an Environmental Audit Committee hearing where the company created by the government to oversee the bailed out banks, UK Financial Investments, were vigorously questioned. MPs in the hearing demanded to know  whether or not RBS had been using public money to finance tar sands in Canada.

Speaking after the hearing, Martin Horwood, MP for Cheltenham and Environmental Audit Committee member, said: "The Government must stop RBS using our money to drive the most damaging projects on earth. RBS is using taxpayer's money to finance projects and companies that are driving climate change all over the world. These projects include tar sands extraction in Canada that is trampling on the rights of indigenous communities and destroying pristine wilderness."

The hearing took place on the same day that questions were being asked in Parliament, RBS announced it was opening an office in...

Euro-MPs yesterday voted overwhelmingly in favour of an EU "Robin Hood tax" on banks to help fund low-carbon development programmes for poor countries.

Last month the campaign for a global tax on banks' financial transactions was launched as a way of raising money to fight poverty, tackle climate change and boost public services. The Robin Hood tax is a way to re-balance the books after the economic damage wreaked by financial excesses.

The tax would be levied on every financial transaction between financial institutions, not on transactions conducted by individuals. The tax could raise billions to plough into combating poverty and tackling climate change at home and around the world.

A resolution approved by 536-80 votes said a 'Financial Transaction Tax' could be used for "innovative financing" for tackling climate change or vital development projects. It backed a worldwide tax but asked the European Commission to look into how to implement such a tax at EU level if a global agreement cannot be reached.

The endorsement from the European Parliament is a step in the right direction in making the banks and hedge funds pay for the crisis, slow down predatory speculation and provide the funding needed to tackle climate change. Keep checking our website or...

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...

Use the following questions to help you engage with your candidates on key global justice issues. These are based on WDM campaigns and you can use these questions whenever you are in contact with a candidate, whether you are writing a letter, at a meeting or at a hustings event.

Cleaning up the banks
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is 84 per cent publicly owned yet it continues to invest in projects that exacerbate poverty and damage the environment. If elected, will you ensure that RBS phases out its destructive investments and instead becomes a ‘Royal Bank of Sustainability’ to finance low carbon projects?

Climate debt
Over two thirds of the UK’s money for tackling climate change in developing countries is in the form of loans which will increase unjust financial debts. If elected, will you ensure that UK climate change money is given as grants not loans?

Financial transaction tax
A financial transaction tax would limit the worst excesses of the financial system, whilst raising money for aid and tackling climate change. If elected, will you ensure that...

Vote Global (pdf format) is a development manifesto that WDM and over 100 other development organisations have signed up to. It sets out the key political commitments that are necessary for the UK to play a leading role in tackling global poverty and injustice.

The manifesto covers five areas:

1. More and better aid and debt relief
2. Tackling climate change
3. Making the global economy work for the poor
4. Good governance and addressing corruption
5. Responding to conflict situations

WDM is specifically calling on parliamentary candidates in the upcoming election to take action on climate debt, cleaning up dirty investments by bailed-out banks and the financial transaction tax.

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...

The start of an unusal mobilisation of pension fund members has been kicked off by the organisation FairPensions to attempt to hold BP and Shell to account for their investment in tar sands.

The idea is that individuals contact their pension funds, through an online action, to show support of environmental resolutions that have been tabled at the annual meetings of BP and Shell this spring. These call on the oil giants to report on the investment risks associated with tar sands and their plans to address them.

Exploitation of tar sands by companies, which are in some cases financed by the UK taxpayer, due to our ownership of the Royal Bank of Scotland, is likely to cause a stir this week with a new report from PLATFORM investigating the role of RBS and other UK banks in tar sands extraction.

Tar sands are among some of the world's dirtiest fuels to produce. Their extraction is having a hugely detrimental impact on the lives and human rights of indigenous communities in Canada. And their extraction produces on average three times the greenhouse gases of conventional oil, which means their contribution to climate injustice is particularly high. Climate change is already hitting the...

Earlier today, WDM held a protest outside the Department for International Development to oppose the UK’s plans for how climate finance should be administered; plans that WDM are concerned would lock Bangladesh into further poverty.

Protest outside Dfid this morning - UK symbolically locking Bangladesh in chains

The protest, which bought together different groups, including Jubilee Debt Campaign and the Bangladeshi diaspora group, European Action Group on Climate Change in Bangladesh, was held in solidarity with campaigners in Bangladesh who were simultaneously creating a human chain outside the Bangladesh Development Forum in Dhaka, which the UK government is attending. The UK’s Department for International Development has said it wants Bangladesh to make a decision on the proposed deal, called the Multi Donor Trust Fund, during this meeting. However, the deal in its current form is being strongly resisted by Bangladeshi civil society and government because of concerns about how the money would be administered.

The Department for International...

So far the US and Europe has managed to find $3 trillion to bail out the banks, more than $1 trillion of which has gone to the UK banking sector. The financial crisis, caused by the banks themselves, has cased significant increases in poverty and inequality in both the developed and developing world.

This is why WDM is part of a coalition pushing for a financial transaction – ‘Robin Hood’ – tax  to de-incentivise risky trading practices and reduce volatility in markets. This is an excellent opportunity to turn the crisis of the bankers into something good for the world.

A Robin Hood tax could raise an estimated $600-700 billion a year which could be used for pay for socially useful projects in the UK and abroad. The tax should be levied on all bank trades, ranging from shares to foreign exchange and derivatives. The cash generated could be spend on a range of projects, including combating poverty at home and abroad as well as fighting climate change.

The tax would also prevent speculative bubbles arising, such as the one that caused the global food crisis in 2008 and led millions more people into hunger.
Whilst we campaign for an international tax, Europe and the UK do not have to wait for the rest of the...

Last November's £25 billion cash injection deemed 'unlawful' by WDM and the Treasury's intervention in bankers' bonuses strengthens our case.

WDM, together with PLATFORM and People and Planet today served the Treasury with an 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. We believe that no proper assessment was undertaken and that the Treasury has failed to adequately calculate the negative impact of allowing RBS to invest taxpayers' money into harmful projects.

Rosa Curling from our solicitors Leigh Day & Co Solicitors commented: “The assessment completed by the Treasury fails completely to comply with the mandatory requirements of its own guidance and its failure to apply a consistent policy by insisting on control over the payment of bonuses but not over the lending to climate change and human rights damaging projects is unlawful.”

Legal action last year

We also took the...

Bankers resisting plans to cut bonuses and reform the sector at the World Economic Forum have inspired anti-poverty campaigners to renew demands for a financial transaction tax to reduce global inequality.

The World Development Movement, one of the organisations backing the tax, says the additional revenue could finance a ‘green new deal’ in rich nations while providing money for poorer countries to develop low carbon economies and cope with the impact of climate change. The tax would also increase financial stability and dampen the risks of sudden food and oil price rises by deterring reckless speculation on debt, equity and commodity markets.

Julian Oram, head of policy at the World Development Movement said:
"The financial sector has grown way too big for its boots, to the extent that the whole global economy is vulnerable to the fortunes of bankers gambling on the markets.

“It's absurd for bankers to be up in arms about regulation given the damage they’ve caused, but it's encouraging us to campaign harder. This is an industry that generates $50 trillion worth of transactions a year. Taxing just a tiny fraction of this would slow down the financial roulette wheel and generate billions of dollars in public revenue that could be of huge benefit to...

MEPs fired questions at the new European trade commissioner Karel de Gucht in a European Parliamentary hearing last week (12 January).

Unsurprisingly De Gucht listed his priorities as: Concluding the WTO Doha round, bilateral trade deals and completing Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) - sticking closely to the predatory path mapped out by his predecessors Peter Mandelson and Baroness Catharine Ashton.

De Gucht was keen to tout his development credentials as the former development commissioner and confirmed his commitment to Doha with the usual rhetoric that free trade will help the poor. However this was called into question when De Gucht was challenged over the massive job losses and industrial destruction that proposed EU trade deals would cause in poorer countries and that pushing for more market access was really about generating superprofits for European big business. De Gucht was evasive and unable to deny that development was being sacrificed for corporate interest and instead gave a cursory answer about trade policy being a vehicle to project European values about human rights and climate change.
 

Carrying on the thread of corporate interest in European policy making, Caroline Lucas (Green MEP from UK) expressed concern at the...

At the end of last year our unprecedented legal action against the Treasury was rejected by the High Court and we have now lodged an appeal against the decision taken, requesting that the Court of Appeal overturn it.

The Treasury’s decision not to take steps to ensure public money, via the Royal Bank of Scotland, is not invested in companies and/or projects which are harmful to the environment and human rights is unlawful, immoral and undemocratic.

Our appeal concerns two legal points in particular. Firstly, whether the Treasury’s decision that RBS should only act in the “commercial interest” of the company is lawful? The Treasury has stated that it would be unlawful for it to require RBS to consider the impact of their potential investments on climate change and human rights. They also state to prevent RBS from investing in, for example fossil fuel companies, would be a “handicap” and a “burden” to it. Neither is correct.

Indeed, according to our lawyers, it is unlawful for directors of a company not to take the impact of their business on the environment and the community into account. (If you’re into the law in a big way, we’re talking about Section 172 of the Companies Act 2006.)

And the recent report we commissioned along with People and...

The UK based, anti poverty campaigners, the World Development Movement branded the Copenhagen talks as a ‘shameful and monumental failure.’ 
 
Tim Jones, climate policy officer at the World Development Movement said:
 “This summit has been in complete disarray from start to finish, culminating in a shameful and monumental failure that has condemned millions of people around the world to untold suffering. The leaders of rich countries have refused to lead. They have been captured by business interests at a time when people need leaders to put justice first."

“Rich countries have failed the poorest people in the world and history will judge them harshly. They have failed to offer the emissions cuts that science and justice requires. To say that this ‘deal’ is in any way historic or meaningful is to completely misrepresent the fact that this ‘deal’ is meaningless."

President Obama has presented a ‘deal’ in the form of a Copenhagen Accord. However, it was drafted with participation from just a small number of countries, the majority of them rich. Several developing countries have refused to sign, and it has not been adopted as a UN agreement.

"Countries have been right to resist the signing of the Accord. It would be better to...

Welcome to the January 2010 issue of Think Global and take our urgent action on climate finance in Bangladesh.

We are campaigning in solidarity with the Equity and Justice Working group in Bangladesh and are calling on the UK government to rethink money for climate change adaptation going through the World Bank.  In addition we are demanding that this money is disbursed as grants, rather than as loans which will further add to Bangladesh's debt burden. 

Download the template letter below and write to Douglas Alexander.

Tim Jones, used to be policy officer

From Copenhagen

A thick covering of snow has arrived in Copenhagen. The white powder helps to lift excitement from the dire situation in the negotiations.

Only 300 observers are now allowed into the convention centre, but early this morning I squeezed in as part of the Climate Justice Now contingent. However, there has been precious little to observe. Official negotiations have resumed, but are mainly behind closed doors. And the more important discussions are happening even further out of sight.

Ed Miliband was reported as calling for more substance to the negotiations or the Copenhagen outcome would be a “farce”. This was followed by Gordon Brown making his set-piece speech. Lots of lists of three and contrasting pairs made it a rhetorical tour de force. But the complete lack of substance certainly fulfilled Ed’s prophesy of farce.

Some of my colleagues on the inside are experienced campaigners from world trade negotiations. They say the talks in Copenhagen now share all the aggression, bullying and bribery rich countries have exercised for years at the WTO. One even commented that this is worse than the WTO. So...