Campaigner interrupts key note speech by Nick Clegg

On the opening day of the Rio+20 summit yesterday, a UK campaigner interrupted a key note speech by Nick Clegg, UK Deputy Prime Minister, at a high level meeting on natural capital. 

Reader, campaigner from the World Development Movement in the UK, stood up wearing a Nick Clegg mask and holding a sign saying ‘The Great Nature Sale’ and interrupted Clegg opening speech calling by out, ‘This is the great nature sale. The World Bank is not about helping people in poverty, it does nothing for climate change.’

Sarah Reader said afterwards: 

I interrupted the meeting because the UK’s approach to the ‘green economy’ is a smoke screen for pushing the profit of multinational corporations, bankers and the financial industry. Privatising nature, which is essentially what this meeting is about, will do nothing to protect the environment and will take control of the land, air and water away from the world’s poorest people who depend on it for their livelihoods.”

Note to editors

1. The ‘High-level Dialogue on Natural Capital’ was hosted by the UK Government and the World Bank yesterday at 13:00 Rio de Janeiro time. The meeting was to promote the Natural Capital Declaration, signed by the CEOs of 37 major financial sector companies on 16 June. The declaration calls for the integration of ‘natural capital’ into financial products and services. It advocates the financial valuation of unpriced natural resources like water and biodiversity and the creation of ‘risk management tools’ for natural capital, potentially opening the door to financial speculation. The declaration calls on governments to incentivise companies that integrate the value of ‘ecosystem services’ into their business model.

3. The World Development Movement launched the ‘Great Nature Sale’ on ebay yesterday, listing iconic natural sites such as the Amazon rainforest and the Lake District to demonstrate that ‘natural capital’ valuation could lead to ecosystems being sold of to the highest bidder. 

4. The campaigners also held a Great Nature Sale stunt on Rio’s seafront. High-resolution photos and a short video are available.