-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- -------- Original Message -------- Subject: (WB) Sign-on letter to Phase out Financing Oil, Gas and Mining Projects Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 23:22:52 -0600 (CST) From: "Margrete Strand Rangnes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Organization: ? To: undisclosed-recipients:; - forwarded message. Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] for more information - APOLGIES FOR CROSS POSTINGS * PLEASE FORWARD TO OTHER NETWORKS FOR ENDORSEMENTS * DEADLINE IS APRIL 3 2000 SEND ENDORSEMENT TO [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dear Colleagues Next month, April 16-17, officials at the World Bank and IMF meet in Washington, DC for their spring meetings. Many organizations and grassroots groups are organizing large protests and demonstrations to take place during that meeting. Friends of the Earth-US, in consultation with other groups, has prepared an NGO platform statement that calls on the World Bank to shift out of financing oil, gas and mining projects and to announce an immediate ban on financing these projects in pristine, frontier areas. Over the years, it is evident that investments in the extractive industries cause significant and irreparable harm to the environment, the poor, indigenous communities, and contribute to the crises of global climate change. All too often, these projects are associated with human rights abuses and the companies build alliances with authoritarian governments to protect their corporate interest. We have developed this platform to call a halt to this kind of financing. The statement also calls on public funds to be used for public good, while recognizing that it may not be appropriate for the World Bank to be involved in financing these projects either. What is important is that civil society sets the development priorities for their country, not by bankers in Washington, DC. We ask for your organizational endorsement and for your assistance in circulating this statement to other organizations. To endorse, please send your name, organization and country to Sara Zdeb ([EMAIL PROTECTED], or fax 202/783-0444). The deadline for replying is April 3, 2000. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= NGO PLATFORM CALLING ON THE WORLD BANK GROUP TO PHASE OUT FINANCING OIL, GAS AND MINING PROJECTS APRIL 2000 In this era of globalization, there is a growing awareness that environmental protection and economic development must go hand in hand. Nowhere is the incompatibility of environmental destruction and poverty alleviation more evident than in the World Bank Group's investments in the extractive industries: oil, gas and mining. As the world's largest development institution, and one of the major vehicles for economic globalization, the World Bank now stands at a crossroads: perpetuate poverty and pollution through extractive industries, or alleviate poverty through environmentally and socially sustainable development. The undersigned organizations and individuals call on the publicly financed World Bank Group to phase out of financing destructive oil, gas and mining projects. The Bank's support for these extractive industries underscores its record of environmental and social destruction. Oil, gas and mining projects enable wealthy multinational corporations to extract resources and profits from poor countries, leaving poverty in their wake. They fuel global climate change, pollute the environment and lead to deforestation. Even worse, extractive industries have further entrenched corrupt and dictatorial governments, and exacerbated human rights abuses. Oil, gas, and mining embody an unsustainable model of economic development that has failed the world's poor in the 20th century. There is no reason for the World Bank Group to finance these sectors in the 21st. The World Bank Group devotes a significant share of its portfolio to extractive sectors (in 1999, IFC and MIGA lent 16% and the World Bank lent 3.8% of its portfolio for oil, gas and mining projects). An environmentally and socially sustainable approach would include investing in new industries, clean technologies, environmental protection, job creation and education. The World Bank Group should establish an immediate ban on new exploration in pristine, frontier ecosystems (a ban more than 200 organizations from 52 countries called for at the Kyoto climate change meeting). Finally, we call on the World Bank Group to develop a plan for a complete phase out of financing oil, gas and mining projects. The transition away from these sectors should be developed in a participatory manner, be based on renewable energy-based systems and ensure the livelihoods of local communities. Ten Reasons the World Bank Group Should Stop Financing Oil, Gas, and Mining Projects in Poor Nations 1. The Poor Often Pay the Highest Price The environmental destruction and social upheaval that accompany oil, gas, and mining projects often harm the poor the most. The poor are the most likely to be forced off of their land and made homeless by these projects. They are the most likely to live in polluted surroundings and the least empowered to demand fair compensation or a share in the revenue from oil, gas and mining development. The poor are the most dependent upon local natural resources for their food and livelihoods, and the most likely to suffer when aid is diverted from social sectors to finance extractive industries. 2. Indigenous Communities are Jeopardized Oil, gas and mining operations have devastated dozens of indigenous groups around the world, resulting in loss of their numbers, territory, livelihoods and cultural identity. From the Amazon Basin to Asia, these indigenous peoples' ways of life are built on age-old traditions and deep ties to and interdependence with the ecosystems where they live. As a result of these extractive industries, indigenous communities often lose their right to self-determination, their right to their land and livelihood. 3. Leads to Forest Destruction and Biodiversity Loss From Siberia's temperate forests, to the mangroves of Central Africa, to the rainforests of the Amazon basin, oil, gas and mining projects threaten precious forests and cause irreversible damage to ecosystems and biodiversity loss. Oil and gas exploration, mining and new roads (which are often an indirect result of oil, gas and mining exploration) currently threaten more than half of both South America's and Russia's frontier forests, according to the World Resources Institute. Coal mining in eastern India threatens to destroy the last remaining habitat for the endangered tiger. Much of this exploration and mining is taking place in pristine, frontier forest areas. 4. Toxic Contamination of Communities Oil, gas, and mining operations are significant sources of ecological degradation even in wealthier nations with stronger environmental protections. In poorer countries with weaker environmental standards and less oversight capacity, the likelihood of oil spills, toxic emissions, and contamination is greatly increased, and governments and communities are less equipped to limit the damage. Between 1982 and 1992 Shell's subsidiary in Nigeria spilled about 1.6 million gallons of oil in the Niger Delta, most from leaking pipelines. Spills, gas flaring, improper disposal of waste, and mining accidents result in toxic releases that can be dangerous and even deadly to humans, and can poison groundwater, farmland, livestock and marine resources, the very resources on which the poor depend. 5. Negatively Impacts Women Women often bear a disproportionate amount of the costs of extractive projects in their communities. Women are often not included in the Bank's consultation process for projects, even though they are responsible for the welfare of their family. Often men are hired to work in the extractive industries, leaving women behind with an increased workload. Their customary responsibilities are made even more difficult as the natural resources upon which they and their families depend, including clean drinking water and fuelwood for cooking, are polluted or degraded by these extractive industries. 6. Extractive Industries Often Tied to Human Rights Abuses From forced relocation, to the brutal, and sometimes deadly, suppression of those who dare to demand fair compensation or clean-up, the drive for profit from fossil fuels and minerals has all too often led to human rights violations by governments and corporations. Witness the struggle in Nigeria by the Ogoni people to demand the clean-up of the pollution on their land by the oil industry, or the demand of the Amungme in Irian Jaya, Indonesia, calling for fair treatment and compensation from the largest gold and copper mine in the world. The rights of individuals and communities are often sacrificed in the search for profit by these industries. 7. Ties with dictators and corrupt governments Many of the countries with oil, gas and mining projects suffer from corruption and authoritarian regimes. Whether it is Russia, Colombia, Indonesia or Nigeria, repressive countries often form alliances with multinational corporations involved in extractive industries. For the last two years, Transparency International, a non-profit corruption watchdog, has identified Chad as the most corrupt nation in the world. In spite of this situation, the World Bank still claims oil development will benefit the poor in these countries, and is ready to finance a multi-million dollar oil development scheme. 8. Supports Corporate Welfare The multinational corporations involved in extractive industries often have profits that dwarf the size of many of the Bank's borrowing countries. In the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline Project, which the Bank is poised to finance, the lead company - Exxon - has annual profits that are four times the budget of Cameroon and 40 times the budget of Chad. Although earmarked for sustainable development and poverty relief, nine out of ten World Bank fossil fuel projects benefit transnational corporations based in wealthy countries. These multinationals are wealthy and do not need to tap into preciously limited foreign aid. Furthermore, when the Bank subsidizes these corporate giants, it diverts much needed aid from programs that truly benefit the poor. 9. Extractive Industries Fuel Global Climate Change Fossil fuels are the major cause of global climate change and must be phased out. Climate change is already wreaking havoc on the poorest in developing countries, and threatens to only worsen their situation. The World Bank Group should be leading the way to assist countries in a transition towards a more renewable energy economy and maximizing energy efficiencies, not tapping into the last remaining resources for the dirtiest, most climate-destabilizing fuels. Today the World Bank spends 25 times more on fossil fuel projects than on renewables. Rather than taking substantive action on climate change, and drastically reducing their fossil fuel lending, the World Bank is now launching a carbon trading scheme, which threatens to provide even more subsidies to the already heavily subsidized fossil fuel industry. 10 Increases Debt and Dependency of Poor Countries Oil, gas and mining development commit countries to a path of indebtedness and dependency on external aid. Desperate for hard currency to service debts, poor countries exploit their natural resources at unsustainable rates, such as petroleum reserves or minerals, to export for foreign exchange. This costly development path fuels growing indebtedness, and the World Bank's policy-based lending encourages an unsustainable export-led growth strategy. Endorsed By: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Margrete Strand Rangnes Senior Organizer Public Citizen Global Trade Watch 215 Pennsylvania Ave, SE Washington DC, 20003 USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] + 202-454-5106 + 202-547 7392 (fax) To subscribe to our MAI Mailing List, send an e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], or subscribe directly by going to our website, www.tradewatch.org (Please indicate organizational affiliation if any, and also where you found out about this list) To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Indicate which listserv you wish to be unsubscribed from. 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