News

By the end of tomorrow (Friday 13 January 2012), the average person in Britain will have emitted as much carbon dioxide as the average person in Kenya will in an entire year, according to figures from the World Development Movement. 

The latest available data shows Kenya’s annual per capita carbon emissions at 0.293 tons, while the UK’s are 8.351 tons. Despite having such little responsibility for causing climate change, Kenyans are facing some of the worst weather related disasters globally. Last year, Kenya and neighbouring East African countries suffered their worst drought in 60 years, resulting in a severe food crisis.

By 2 January the average UK citizen had already emitted as much CO2 as the average person in Chad or Afghanistan will by the end of 2012.

By 16 January the average Brit will have emitted as much CO2 as the average Bangladeshi will all year. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that Bangladesh will face an increasing number of disasters due to typhoons and tropical storms.

By 1 March a UK citizen will have emitted as much CO2 as the average citizen of India will do all year. An estimated 700...

Barclays Bank has been shortlisted for the 2012 Public Eye ‘shame award’ due to its financial speculation on food prices. Anti-poverty campaign group the World Development Movement, which nominated the bank, says its activity is fuelling hunger and poverty worldwide. 

Barclays is estimated to make up to £340 million a year from speculating in food ‘futures’ markets, making it the biggest UK player in the markets. Research by the World Development Movement shows that a massive influx of speculative money in food markets is driving sharp price spikes, sending the cost of food soaring beyond the reach of the world’s poorest people. Financial speculation on food nearly doubled between 2006 and 2011.

Barclays CEO Bob Diamond responded to the Occupy movement by telling the BBC in November that banks must be “better citizens”. But Barclays has ignored calls from campaigners to put the basic human need for food before the profits it makes from speculation.

Amy Horton, campaigner at the World Development Movement, said today:

Barclays is essentially gambling on food prices, at the expense of millions of people...

Durban, 16:45, 9 December 2011

As negotiations on the final outcome of the UN climate talks look set to continue late into the night, negotiators remain focused on the EU’s proposed roadmap to replace the Kyoto Protocol with a package that makes the same demands of poor developing countries as it does of rich industrialised countries. The talks have paid almost no attention to the two most urgent issues for developing countries: emissions reductions by developed countries, and finance to help people in poor countries cope with climate change.

On the last day of the talks, Murray Worthy, policy officer at the World Development Movement said:

“The UK and EU’s talk of a new global deal is little more than a distraction from their inaction. The EU is failing to take responsibility for its part in causing climate change.  It should be taking the lead through meaningful action. Instead, the EU ‘roadmap’ has been a smokescreen for developed countries’ failure to do what is needed. It is the world’s poorest people, those least responsible for this crisis, who will end up paying the highest price.”

The talks look set to result in a new Green Climate Fund to deliver finance to developing countries. But the World Development Movement...

Talk of a long-term climate deal to cut carbon emissions is allowing industrialised countries to delay taking action, says World Development Movement policy officer Murray Worthy, writing from Durban.

The main story coming out of the UN climate talks in Durban so far has been whether or not the summit can agree to start negotiations on a new long term deal. The EU doesn’t want to talk about much else, and many media reports are focusing on whether developing countries like China and India will come on board. However, lurking behind the positive spin of a new ‘comprehensive deal’ lies the truth – developed countries are ignoring their responsibility and failing to act, and the clock is ticking. Talk of a ‘Durban mandate’ is little more than a smokescreen.

Unless you’re Lord Monckton or Lawson, the science is clear. No one at this summit disputes that humans are causing climate change. At the climate talks in Cancun, countries pledged to keep temperature rises below 2C, thought to be a key...

A report launched today by the World Development Movement reveals that UK climate aid is being used to produce cheap electricity for the US multinational Walmart, through a project that violates the rights of indigenous people in Mexico.

The report, ‘Power to the people?’, details how money taken from the UK aid budget has been used by the World Bank to finance wind farms in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, built without the consent of the indigenous people who own the land. The project produces enough electricity to power 160,000 homes, but is instead being sold at a discounted rate to Walmart. The project is 99 per cent controlled by French electricity giant EDF.

The La Mata and La Ventosa wind park is part funded the World Bank’s Clean Technology Fund, which receives 14 per cent of its money - or £385 million – from the UK overseas aid budget. The fund’s objectives include poverty reduction, but the wind park has done nothing to increase energy access among the seven per cent of Oaxaca’s population who have no electricity.

Local indigenous woman Bettina Cruz Velazquez told the World Development Movement:

With the pretext of advancing renewable energy, big corporations are occupying our...

• Chancellor George Osborne parodied by the World Development Movement and writers Hoot Comedy
• Comedy series calls on George Osborne to ‘do the right thing’ and back regulation of food speculation by banks
• Speculation is driving high food prices worldwide. High food costs have pushed the food bill for the average UK household up by £188 [1]in the past year, and are forcing  millions of people in developing countries into poverty and hunger

UK Chancellor George Osborne is being re-imagined in a brand new internet comedy series starring Rufus Jones (Holy Flying Circus) which premiers today (22 November) at www.therealgeorgeosborne.com. The Real George Osborne follows George and his long-suffering advisor, Vicki, as he tries to raise his political profile in a bid to become the next Prime Minister.

Filmed in 14 parts and airing between now and Christmas, The Real George Osborne sees George undertake a number of ill-advised PR stunts in order to compete with Boris Johnson as ‘the most recognised Tory’ and unseat David Cameron. Our bumbling Chancellor takes street-dance lessons, enlists a full-time reality TV crew and struggles with fad diets to try to improve his image.

The...

UK money will be used for a ‘climate loan’ to Jamaica, increasing its already heavy debt burden, following a decision by the World Bank this week.

Campaigners have condemned the loan, which will drive the Caribbean nation deeper into poverty. Jamaica’s foreign debt stands at $2,500 per person, and the country spends $1.2 billion a year on debt repayments. The government’s foreign-owed debts are 55 per cent of national income, making it's debt burden one of the heaviest in the world.[1]

The $10 million loan agreed this week is intended to help Jamaica adapt to the effects of climate change. But campaigners say countries like the UK should give climate funds as grants rather than loans.

Jubilee Debt Campaign spokesperson Tim Jones said today:

Debt has devastated lives across the world, bringing economic collapse and diverting money from essential public services. The Jamaican government already spends $450 per person annually on debt repayments, more than on education and healthcare combined. The World Bank and UK government should be cancelling Jamaica's debt, not adding to it with new unjust climate loans."

...

Plans for EU financial reform to be announced today are expected to be insufficient to tackle soaring global food prices, say campaigners from the World Development Movement.

Proposals to be released in Brussels today for a major overhaul of the EU’s financial architecture are set to include measures to increase regulation of commodity markets, where banks and hedge funds speculate on the price of food. But a leaked draft revealed a series of loopholes which campaigners say would make the proposed rules “completely ineffective” in preventing financial speculation from driving up food prices.

The US has already moved to curb excessive speculation on food prices, and on Tuesday American regulators voted to introduce limits on the largest speculators’ involvement in food markets. French President Nicholas Sarkozy is pushing for tough European regulation, but UK Chancellor George Osborne, influenced by the City of London, is understood to be blocking tighter controls.

European commissioner for the internal market, Michel Barnier, who is expected to announce the EU plans today, has spoken out in favour of regulation, telling the European Parliament in January last year, “Speculation in basic foodstuffs is a...

More than 450 economists from over 40 countries have called on the G20 finance ministers, who are meeting in Paris this week, to take urgent action to stop financial speculation in commodity markets driving up food prices and fuelling hunger. 

'Excessive financial speculation is contributing to increasing volatility and record food prices, exacerbating global hunger and poverty,’ say the economists in a letter to the finance ministers. ‘With around 1 billion people enduring chronic hunger worldwide, action is urgently needed to curb excessive speculation and its effects on global food prices.

Economists from top universities including Cambridge, Oxford, Berkeley, Cornell and the London School of Economics have signed the letter, adding their voices to an escalating international campaign. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, the Pope, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz are among those who have already spoken out in favour of curbing speculation.

The G20 agriculture ministers have also called on their finance counterparts to introduce tighter regulation. Speculation is...

International financial regulators have called today for tighter controls on financial speculation in commodity markets, but anti-poverty campaigners the World Development Movement have branded the regulators’ rules as ‘too weak’, saying they will not tackle the growing hunger and poverty caused by speculation on food prices.

The International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), representing regulators from 115 countries, has recommended rules to control the amounts that traders such as investment banks and other financial players can hold in commodity markets.

The Pope, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and the UN special rapporteur on the right to food and are among those who have blamed financial speculation in commodity markets for contributing to spiralling global food prices. The prices of basic foods such as wheat have jumped by over 30 per cent in the past year, while rising prices pushed 44 million people into extreme poverty in the last six months of 2010 alone.

The World Development Movement, while welcoming the regulators’ view that controls are urgently needed, has said that the degree of flexibility in the rules recommended by IOSCO could make them ineffective....

The World Development Movement has called for urgent measures to regulate financial speculation on food prices in the wake of the Horn of Africa famine, revealing that the price of food aid has doubled since 2001.

The World Food Programme paid $390 per tonne of food last year, compared with $200 in 2001. On Monday the organisation said it needed an extra $360 million in order to tackle the crisis now affecting more than 12 million people.

Speculation on food prices by investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Barclays Capital has dramatically risen in the last decade, pushing prices to record levels. Around $100 billion has poured into agricultural markets over the past ten years as financial players have looked for new areas to place their money, without a penny of this going to actual improvements in agriculture.

The US has already passed legislation aimed at preventing excessive speculation on food, and similar measures are being debated in the EU. But the UK government is set to block the European proposals. 

Deborah Doane, director of the anti-poverty campaign group the World Development Movement, said...

This Monday WDM campaigners came to the office with big smiles on their faces. Over the weekend, we’d heard that French Oil giant Total, subject to one of our latest online actions, had apparently cancelled its plans to mine tar sands in Madagascar.

High fives all around. Or?

As the story only seemed to have appeared on a mining industry website, we decided we needed to do some proper digging around. The first thing we did was get in touch with one of our allies in Madagascar. It can be just as hard for campaigners in Madagascar to get information as it is for us here, but their understanding is that Total isn’t going to pull out completely, but instead will extend its license to explore rather than moving on to full scale exploitation. 

This was also confirmed by Total’s business partner, ‘Madagascar Oil’ (based in Houston, not Madagascar), which announced last week that the two companies would not start full-scale mining, but will continue to test for the viability of both conventional oil and tar sands extraction.  

Basically, this means mining has been...

An action plan supposed to address food insecurity launched today by the G20 agriculture ministers has been criticised by campaigners, who say it fails to fully address the root causes of volatile food prices, including financial speculation, which is driving up prices.

Anti-poverty group the World Development Movement said that opposition from countries including the UK had led to the watering down of proposals that could have seen countries commit to setting limits on speculators’ share of the market.

Deborah Doane, director of the World Development Movement said:

Without tackling excessive speculation, the G20’s efforts to rein in volatile food prices will be wasted. The agriculture ministers have ducked controversy, so it falls to G20 finance ministers to address speculation and the hunger and poverty it causes."

The anti-poverty group has called on the UK government to back EU and international efforts to regulate commodity markets. 

Ms. Doane continued:

The UK government’s stance in defence of excessive speculation is untenable. It must put its weight behind European plans for regulation, putting the needs of hungry people before the profits of banks like Goldman Sachs and Barclays Capital.”...

A human rights campaigner from Madagascar is in the UK this week to demand that the Royal Bank of Scotland withdraw its financing of companies mining tar sands in her country.

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has a long track record of financing companies operating in the Canadian tar sands, which are devastating the land and lives of First Nations people in Alberta. The bank has also financed French oil giant Total’s test mining of tar sands in Madagascar over the last three years. Total is expected to decide next month whether to go ahead with larger scale exploitation of tar sands in the country.  If it does, the water supply of more than 120,000 people in one of Madagascar’s poorest areas could be disrupted and poisoned and its unique biodiversity severely threatened.

Malagasy woman Holly Rakotondralambo, who represents a coalition of community organisations from Madagascar, will visit London, Edinburgh and Glasgow this week in a tour organised by the World...

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Press release, 19th April 2011

• Canadian First Nations representatives to voice opposition in person at RBS AGM
• New research shows that, since public bail-out in 2008, RBS has raised more than £5.6 billion for companies involved in controversial Canadian tar sands projects, £2.2 billion of which was in the last twelve months

Representatives from some of Canada’s First Nations are today preparing to demand in person that the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) stops financing the controversial tar sands industry in Alberta, Canada, at the bank’s AGM today. [1]

The protest comes as new research, published by a coalition of UK and North American NGOs, shows that since being bailed out with public money in 2008, RBS has raised £5.6 billion in corporate financing to companies involved in Alberta’s tar sands extraction and pipeline development, £2.2 billion of which was in the last twelve months. [2]

The First Nations representatives are expected to arrive at the AGM at RBS’s global head quarters in Gogarburn, Edinburgh, at 1pm. They will take into the AGM a photo petition and motions from UK taxpayers angry that the bank is investing their money in tar sands extraction and use the meeting to call on the board to cease financing tar sands...

Kirsty Wright, climate campaigner

Today, WDM campaigners joined other organisations from the UK and around the world for a day of action targeting the World Bank. Actions were done outside World Bank offices from Washington and Paris to South Africa and India. The day was called because of concerns about the Bank’s lending for fossil fuels, which has been increasing even at a time of climate crisis, and in spite of the Bank’s lobbying to become the institution responsible for climate finance.

Despite the increasingly devastating impacts of climate change for the world’s poorest people, over the last five years World Bank funding for coal-fired power stations has soared 40-fold to hit a record high of £2.8 billion in 2010.

About a quarter of the world’s population, over 1.5 billion people across the global south, have no access to electricity. They have no light in the evening, limited access to radio and communications, no modern power for their work and no way to store medicines safely. This lack of energy is keeping people trapped in poverty. However, despite the World Bank’s pro-...

As bailed-out bank RBS publishes details of its 2010 financial results, campaigners call on the government to cure RBS of its high-risk oil addition. RBS’s results show that it is still not making a profit and today’s photo call highlights the unhealthy investments of an unhealthy bank.

Campaigners from the World Development Movement and Friends of the Earth Scotland are urging the government, as majority shareholder in the bank, to use its power to switch the investments of the Royal Bank of Scotland away from climate-damaging fossil fuels and instead to finance much-needed low carbon industries.

At the Treasury, campaigners delivered over a thousand postcards signed by taxpayers angry at the Government for letting RBS use their money to finance projects and companies that are worsening climate change and threatening human rights.

A campaigner dressed as an RBS banker, addicted to fossil fuels, lay 'unconscious' on the pavement outside the Treasury this morning, having overdosed on oil while another dressed as a doctor tried to cure the banker of his oil addiction.

RBS is the UK bank that has been most heavily involved in financing the global coal industry and companies mining tar sands in Canada. Since being bailed out in October 2008, RBS has...

Over 100 European and international organisations are calling on the G20 Finance Ministers, who are meeting this weekend, to rein in speculation on food prices by banks, hedge funds and pension funds.

The Finance Ministers will be discussing responses to the record food prices which are at ‘dangerous’ levels according to the World Bank with 44 million more people pushed into poverty since last June. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, currently the head of the G20, is pushing for tighter regulation of commodity markets in order to reduce food price spikes and volatility.

But there are concerns that some governments, including the UK, could try to block reforms in the EU and G20 due to fierce opposition from the banking industry. Strong statements have been made by key EU decision makers, including Commissioner Michel Barnier and the French Government, on curbing speculation, but it remains to be seen whether European financial reforms will deliver.

In a statement signed by the Fairtrade Foundation, Friends of the Earth Europe, New Economics Foundation, Corporate Europe Observatory and over a hundred more groups from around the world, political leaders are warned...

The World Development Movement criticised the findings of the Beddington report which promotes the introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops as a key solution to global hunger.

The focus on GM in the Chief Scientist's report is a red herring and does not correctly identify the real causes of hunger.

The World Development Movement's director, Deborah Doane said: "The Beddington report does not accurately reflect the real cause of hunger in developing countries. The current record food prices are down to banks and hedge funds betting on food. The hot speculative inflows of money into commodity markets are dramatically pushing up the price of foods like bread, sugar and corn.

 "GM is not a magic bullet to cure global hunger. If the UK government really wants to reduce hunger in the developing world, they should break free of the grip of the GM and banking lobbyists, and crack down on predatory speculation by banks and hedge funds which will ensure stable and lower food prices. Furthermore, the UK government should be focused on supporting strengthening local markets and investing properly in small scale farmers in developing countries.

 "There is a long-term, gradual upward pressure on food prices, for example due to the impacts of climate...

This year, the British public will be paying more for their Christmas turkey because of City speculators. Betting on commodity prices by hedge funds and investment banks has led to rapidly rising prices of animal feed [1], driving up the retail price of turkeys.

Paul Kelly, an award winning turkey farmer and breeder, warned that turkey prices this Christmas are going to be more expensive than last year and we will be paying up to £3 extra for our festive bird. He said:

“It’s all down to feed prices which have been rising at a rapid pace this year. And it’s entirely fuelled by speculators in the commodity food markets. It’s got nothing to do with wheat stocks. It’s city money men who are driving these prices.”

In spite of the wildfires destroying Russian wheat during the summer, the US and Europe and other grain producing regions have had good harvests this year and the UN even issued a statement saying that global wheat stocks are sufficient.[2]

Since the financial crisis began, market analysts have noted a wave of speculative money pouring into commodity derivative markets, including food. Many experts link this activity by banks and hedge funds to recent volatility and sudden inflation in the retail costs of food and energy.[3]

Paul Kelly adds...

At the conclusion of the climate talks in Cancun, UK-based anti-poverty campaigners from the World Development Movement say that no real progress has been made since last year’s meetings in Copenhagen in terms of tackling emissions due to rich coutnries  feet-dragging. But although they cautiously welcomed the establishment of a new ‘Green Climate Fund’ to help poor countries cope with climate change, they raised strong concerns over the level of finance and potential role of carbon trading and markets.

Dr Julian Oram, head of policy of the World Development Movement said:
“In terms of making serious commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the foot-dragging by developed countries has resulted in a text with little difference from the Copenhagen Accord. A year later, and 300, 000 more people have died from climate change related impacts, and still no more binding commitments have been forthcoming. The best that can be said is that it keeps the Kyoto process limping along until next year’s meetings in South Africa."

On the Green Fund
Dr Julian Oram, head of policy from the World Development Movement said:
“The establishment of a new Green Fund represents probably the only real breakthrough here in Cancun, but even on this big issues remain....

• New figures produced on eve of World Food Day reveal new wave of financial speculation on wheat and corn
• Speculation drives surge in wheat and corn prices to two-year highs

New evidence that speculation on food by hedge funds, pension funds and investment banks is fuelling the rise of bread and other basic foods has been released by anti-poverty campaigners on World Food Day, October 16, 2010.

The World Development Movement has calculated that over the summer, financial speculators in Chicago alone bought up corn futures contracts equivalent to nearly 1.7 billion bushels [1] – more than the annual consumption of Brazil, a country of some 260million people and the world’s third largest consumer of corn.

The figure for wheat over the same period was 241 million bushels [1], equivalent to seven times the amount consumed by Kenya, or half the UK’s total annual wheat harvest.

Between April and September 2010, world prices for wheat rose by over 40 per cent, while corn has risen by over 30 per cent. The campaigners say that these prices rises, which are the highest since the food crisis that gripped the world in 2008, are contributing to higher inflation in the UK for basics foodstuffs such as bread and pasta in the UK, as well causing...

Today, there are many stories about food price rises - hitting poorer people in Mexico and countries in Africa, but delivering fat profits for the likes of contraversial agribusiness, Cargill, which is the world's largest agricultural commodity trader.

In the Daily Mail, climate change is blamed, stemming from academics studing extreme weather events and the impact on food production - they recommended more investment in agriculture and weather resistant crops.

Over at the BBC, they are asking you why you think Africa is still hungry which will culminate in a phone in on World Service this afternoon, should make interesting listening.

And the FT, they highlight that Cargill has made bumper profits because corn prices are at a two year high, that tortilla riots in Mexico in 2006 were a sign of things to come, and that there is a stampede to buy corn because of a reported drop in supply.

With the exception of the...

Watch our new film, be inspired and join us in the fight for climate justice - Cleaning up the Royal Bank of Scotland

Fossil fuel fanatics, and bailed-out bank, RBS are investing our money in the most destructive project on earth; tar sands mining in Canada. They're fuelling climate change and trampling on human rights. Indigenous activists from Canada joined us in protests at the RBS 2010 AGM. 

Please share with your friends and networks!

Take action: Stop taxpayers' money funding climate change
Email the chancellor today - http://www.wdm.org.uk/tarsands

The progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals is being discussed at a summit in New York. The goals were set in 2000 with a target of meeting them by 2015. Ten years later, it's clear that progress in many areas is slow, espeicially for countries in sub-Saharan Africa, where over half the population continues to live in abject poverty.

Deborah Doane, director of UK based, anti-poverty campaigners, the World Development Movement explains why:
“With only five years to reach the Millennium Development Goals, leaders of rich countries need to get beyond inspirational speeches, and pledging more aid money that never arrives. Heads of State are delivering rhetoric but little else.
 

"They need to address the root causes of poverty that simply aren’t being mentioned: including an unfair trading system, unjust debt burdens and the biggest elephant in the room: climate change. If governments continue to dodge these thorny issues, then ultimately, MDG project will be doomed to failure.”
 

The World Development Movement believes that the lack of progress can be attributed to three central failures by rich countries which are neglecting people in sub-Saharan Africa in particular, but are also failing to address inequality between...

The World Development Movement believes that a key reason that food prices rises have been increasing dramatically is due to excessive speculation in commodity markets by investment banks and hedge funds and that the UN FAO should be coming out more strongly against excessive speculation.

Dr Julian Oram, who is attending the UN FAO emergency summit in Rome commented:

"There is a clear narrative emerging from the meeting of, ''crisis? what crisis?' Looking at the numbers we're not facing an imminent food shortage, such as we saw in 2007-08. What's interesting is that the current jump in grain prices seems to be driven by markets, not supply and demand. There's a strong view that we're  witnessing a speculation-induced food price spike.

"We've heard some concrete ideas at today's sessions to reign in excessive speculation on commodity markets, and it's encouraging to hear more and more governments falling in line behind these proposals."

“Food experts are telling us that global grain stocks are fine and there’s no imminent shortage. The recent price movements we’ve seen can only be explained by opportunistic speculators snapping up food derivatives contracts, in order to make a quick buck. This kind of activity benefits no one, and it’s up to the...

The World Development Movement (WDM) has said proposals to establish three new European banking regulators could help prevent food crises, as wheat price rises fuelled by financial speculation trigger bread riots in Mozambique.

WDM has been pushing for urgent action to prevent banks and hedge funds engaging in excessive speculation in food derivatives markets, which drove the 2006-2008 food price crisis [1] and is fuelling the recent wheat price spike. Wheat prices have rocketed nearly 70% since January, causing riots in Mozambique this week in which seven people have died.

Negotiators from the European Commission, European parliament and Council of Ministers yesterday agreed to establish the three watchdogs, which will include a European Securities and Markets Authority covering derivatives as well as other markets.

Deborah Doane, director of the World Development Movement said:

"The feeding frenzy on wheat derivatives is once again causing hunger and unrest in the world’s poorest countries. It is essential that we end the reckless speculation by big banks and...

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...

India has rejected plans by UK-based Vedanta Resources to mine bauxite from indigenous lands in Orissa, India.  The ruling has been described as a 'landmark victory' for indigenous rights.

The Royal Bank of Scotland were criticized earlier this year by Amnesty International alongside WDM for providing financial services to Vedanta Resources despite a damaging human rights record in the region.

Liz Murray, Head of Scottish Campaigns said: "The Indian government is right to use its powers to stop Vedanta mining on the tribal lands of the Kutia and Dongria Kondh people. The UK government should follow suit by using its own powers to stop the UK bailed-out banks, such as RBS, from continuing to use taxpayers money to provide finance for these kinds of damaging projects. The UK government could, instead, turn RBS into a green investment bank, investing our money ethically and for sustainable development."

India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests rejected the mine project proposed by a subsidiary of UK-based Vedanta Resources and the state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation, after finding that the project already extensively violates forest and environmental laws and would...

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...

Wheat prices have hit a two year high. Prices are again climbing steeply for wheat and, despite claims by some analysts in the media, there is plenty of wheat available and talk of global shortages is unfounded.

The last time prices were higher, there was a food crisis and people were going hungry across the developing world, whilst in the US and UK people were paying more for their weekly shop.

Whilst drought, fire and flooding have reduced Russia and Canada's wheat harvest respectively, there is a bumper yield in the United States and global wheat stocks are high. So if the price were based on supply and demand for wheat itself, the price would not be rocketing in the way that it has over the last month. According to Jonathan Barratt, managing director at Commodity Broking Services in Sydney “There are two things driving the market, fear and fund buying.”

Those funds are the same speculators which caused food prices to go so high in 2008, and have sent coffee and cocoa prices all over the place in recent months. Now they are once again pushing up the price of one of the world’s staple foods. It has been reported that speculators bought an unusually high number of wheat contracts in recent weeks.

Some producers of biscuits and bread have said that...

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...

* New report: Gambling by banks like Goldman Sachs increased food prices

* UK must 'back, not block' new banking reform in Europe, say campaigners

* Over 800 people have pledged to call the FSA to demand action to stop banks gambling on food

Today banks have come under fire for risky and secretive gambling on coffee, cocoa and wheat which is playing havoc with prices.

Lovers of chocolate spread on toast with a cup of coffee in the morning face paying more for their breakfast as prices have rocketed on the international markets.

The same banks, secretive hedge funds and dangerous speculation that caused the sub-prime mortgage crisis and global financial meltdown are also causing food prices to rise massively, argues new research from anti-poverty campaigning group, the World Development Movement.

Cocoa prices have reached their highest levels for 33 years, increasing by 150 per cent over 18 months which could force some chocolate makers to raise prices and in some cases use less cocoa.

Although poor harvests acted as the initial trigger for price rises in cocoa, the finger is being pointed at hedge funds and big...

We have recently launched www.whoshouldicheerfor.com – a website that ranks the countries playing in the World Cup based on development and social justice indicators such as income inequality, maternal mortality rates and carbon emissions per capita.

This means that if you want to support a team that gives aid generously, you could choose to cheer for Denmark or the Netherlands. And if you wanted to choose a low carbon country, you could choose Cameroon or Ghana.

The site is not an overall ranking of how ‘good’ or ‘bad’ we think each country is. It is intended to be a fun and interesting way to think about the serious issues of global poverty and the inequality between the nations competing in the World Cup. 

For example, Nigeria is the poorest country in the World Cup with an income of £730 per person a year. It takes England centre-back John Terry just ten minutes to earn the same. Some of the poorest countries in the world are playing in South Africa and we think that we should cheer for them.

We have also put together a great team of bloggers from a range of organisations who will write daily during the World Cup on issues around football and social justice.

So, who will you cheer for...

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...

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...