-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2000 2:17 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: ACTION: Oil, Gas and Mining Platform- sign on by 4/3/2000
Dear ADNA members,
Below find the platform from Friends of the Earth which you are
invited to endorse or sign-on to as organizations. The deadline to
submit your endorsement is April 3 and it will be presented to the
World Bank during the week of April 10 - World Bank Energy
Week, also a press release/conference etc. Forward your org
endorsement to Sara Zdeb at Friends of the Earth - [log in to unmask]
as quickly as possible.
Also, please share this widely with your own networks so that there
is broad representation in the list of signatories.
Regards,
Vicki Ferguson
ADNA Communications Facilitator
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date sent: Tue, 21 Mar 2000 16:06:38 -0500
From: "Carol Welch" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Oil, Gas and Mining Platform- sign on
NGO PLATFORM
CALLING ON THE WORLD BANK GROUP
TO PHASE OUT FINANCING OF
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.
Ten Better Examples of Good Development
There is no shortage of alternatives to oil, gas and mining.
Opportunities will vary between countries, but this is not an obstacle
ensuring that foreign assistance directly responds to the needs of
the poor and offer sustainable solutions to pressing environmental
problems. The starting point is for the World Bank Group to work
with governments to establish a participatory process and consult
with citizens and stakeholders in the borrowing countries to identify
national development priorities for investment and financial support.
It may not be appropriate for the World Bank Group to invest in
each of these areas.
But the bottom line is that where the World Bank Group is providing
financial assistance to developing countries, it must limit its support
to those projects and policy lending which directly alleviates poverty
and promotes environmentally and socially sustainable development.
Some better development examples than what the World Bank is
currently doing with the majority of its lending, include:
1. Support education and technical training.
Investing in human capital is the most important investment of all. A
quality education empowers a person to defend their rights and to
creatively employ their own resources. Basic education is a
fundamental right and the foundation upon which an informed and
dynamic citizenry is based, yet it is denied to hundreds of millions
of children around the world. Primary education is key, especially
for girls.
2. Promote healthy societies.
Easily preventable diseases continue to kill millions of people each
year. In many countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, roughly one in four
children will die before the age of five and diarrhea is a leading
cause of death among toddlers. Responding to this scandal and
waste of human and economic potential is a moral imperative that
the world must face.
3. Support micro and small enterprise.
Supporting small and medium enterprises, as well as micro-
enterprise initiatives, has obvious social advantages over the mega-
projects that characterize World Bank Group lending. Smaller
enterprises result in more employment per dollar invested, are more
likely to reinvest earnings in the local economy and can be more
easily targeted to benefit women and marginalized communities.
From producing carbon filters out of coconut husks, to exporting
organic foods to other markets, opportunities for promoting small
and medium sized initiatives are endless.
4. Build strong agricultural sectors that respond to peoples' needs.
Agriculture is the lifeblood of many of the world's poorest countries.
World Bank projects and policy lending have often been associated
with accumulation of land in the hands of the few and the promotion
of export driven agriculture that can ultimately undermine food
security. What is needed is a more positive role in development in
the agriculture sector that deals with land redistribution and land
rights, sustainable agricultural practices and more appropriate
technology development.
5. Deliver energy to the rural poor.
Roughly two billion people in rural areas lack access to electricity
and other forms of energy. While the World Bank has a strategy to
address these needs, it has never properly implemented it. Instead,
financing is oriented toward industrial development and urban areas,
thereby further impoverishing the rural poor. Drawing on advances
in renewable energy, and existing production, the World Bank
Group could bring energy to millions of people in rural areas. In
most cases, cost-benefit analysis shows that renewable forms of
energy are the most viable way to reach remote, rural areas.
6. Improve the quality of life in urban areas.
Gridlock, pollution, crime and a declining quality of life are the
products of overcrowded cities flourishing in the developing world.
The World Bank Group could help counter-act this trend by
directing more of its resources towards land-use planning, improved
efficiency in building practices and pollution control. Better-
organized transit corridors, especially public transit such as low cost
ultralight rail vehicles, would reduce pollution-related illnesses. The
World Bank Group could work to support innovative building
practices and work with city planners to improve the design of urban
areas. The Bank could also invest in more urban area pollution
programs, the cause of so many health related problems.
7. Develop productive alternatives to deforestation.
Even by its own analysis, World Bank Group projects are often
associated with accelerating rates of deforestation. More emphasis
should be placed on developing alternatives to deforestation and
promoting the sustainable use of certain forest resources. Innovative
alternatives exist, such as emerging substitutes for wood products
and non-wood paper production, or supporting eco-tourism and the
sustainable harvesting of forest products such as rubber.
Governments should be enabled to expand protected areas for
conservation and sustainable use because forests are critical for the
global environment and for generations to come.
8. Encourage the efficient use of water.
Water scarcity is a growing global concern, as well as an
increasingly obvious potential source of conflict. Despite the
shortages and its fundamental importance to life on earth, huge
volumes of water are unnecessarily wasted each day. Bombay loses
up to one-third of its water, and losses are as high as 50 percent in
Manila. Similarly, irrigation systems that account for more than half
of the water drawn for human use, can also be sources of great
waste. The World Bank Group could improve quality of life by
directing more of its resources to reducing leakage, improving water
conservation and developing mechanisms to more efficiently employ
existing irrigation systems.
9. Promote energy efficiency and renewable energy development.
Rather than promoting the exploration and production of fossil fuels,
the World Bank Group should be concentrating its energy on
capturing the hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues that are
annually lost through energy inefficiency. Investments in preventing
heat loss and in co-generation processes that simultaneously
produce both hot water and electricity, could save World Bank
Group clients billions of dollars in the coming decades. Combined
with energy efficient lighting and building techniques, this would
reduce energy imports and possibly free up energy for export.
Similarly, by supporting emerging markets in solar, wind and fuel
cell technology, the Bank will be promoting energy that will not
exacerbate pollution problems or global climate change.
10. Immediate Debt Cancellation and Recognition of Ecological
Debt.
The dire problem of debt must be addressed. The World Bank
Group should move forward this year on granting immediate debt
cancellation to the highly indebted poor countries and develop a
program for debt relief for middle income countries. These
programs should include innovative approaches to protect and
conserve more pristine, frontier ecosystems around the world. It
should also be recognized that there is an ecological debt that must
be reckoned with since Northern consumers have benefitted from
cheap natural resources, including oil, gas and minerals, from the
South. These resources have been extracted at a high cost to the
environment and communities.
Endorsed By:
Sign-on list to be attached here
REMINDER: Cancel the debt! Have your voice counted at the
Jubilee 2000/USA Mass Mobilization for Poor Country Debt
Cancellation! Mark the Date! April 9, 2000, plus April 10 Lobby Day
Washington, DC Register to attend at
http://www.loga.org/rallyform.htm
Carol Welch
International Policy Analyst
Friends of the Earth
202-783-7400 x. 237
***
Message distributed at the request of Friends of the Earth to the
Advocacy Network for Africa.
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