The groups released a report today titled "Dirty is the New Clean: A Critique of the World Bank's Strategic Framework for Development and Climate Change."
The report argues that the World Bank's track record disqualifies it from managing clean technology transfer and climate adaptation funds. Instead, the groups argue, such funds should be established under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in order to ensure they are used equitably and effectively, in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibility, and that nations receiving financing are thoroughly involved in funds' design and implementation.
"The World Bank has a very troubling track record on climate change. It has repeatedly invested in dirty projects and called them 'clean,'" said Janet Redman of the Institute for Policy Studies and the lead author of the report. "It is beyond ridiculous for the World Bank to continue to claim that projects such as the Tata coal plant in India—expected to be one of the world's top 50 global warming polluters—are part of the solution to the climate crisis. The World Bank cannot be trusted to oversee climate change funding."
The groups' analysis shows that World Bank Group lending to coal, oil and gas in 2008 increased 94 percent from 2007, reaching over $3 billion. Coal lending alone increased an astonishing 256 percent.
The World Bank claimed major increases in fiscal year 2008 in its renewable energy and energy efficiency lending, but the vast majority of that comes from environmentally and socially destructive large hydropower projects and energy efficiency. Lending for "new" renewables—wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, and hydropower projects that produce up to 10 MW per facility—only increased from $421 million to $476 million from last fiscal year, representing a 13 percent increase, not the 87 percent that the World Bank claims.
"The World Bank provided political and financial support to Exxon and the Chadian government for the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline. Precisely as we warned the World Bank years ago, its support for this pipeline established a new petrol dictatorship in Africa. The World Bank is now withdrawing from the project, but who is left to deal with the monster that it created? Our people are worse off and the local environment is ravaged. We are outraged by the suggestion that this same World Bank is now planning to administer climate change funds," said Samuel Nguiffo of Friends of the Earth Cameroon.
Under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, to which the U.S. is a party, industrialized countries most responsible for global warming are obligated to finance clean technology and adaptation to climate impacts in developing countries.
"Developing countries have clearly articulated at multiple UN climate negotiations that financing for climate change mitigation and adaptation should be fully accountable to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. It is simply wrong for the World Bank—an undemocratic, unaccountable institution—to have any role in controlling climate financing," said Karen Orenstein of Friends of the Earth-U.S.
The groups are:
FRIENDS OF THE EARTH INTERNATIONAL
INSTITUTE FOR POLICY STUDIES
OIL CHANGE INTERNATIONAL
CAMPAGNA PER LA RIFORMA DELLA BANCA MONDIALE
ACTION AID USA
MORE INFORMATION:
Two page factsheet on World Bank's "Climate Investment Funds": http://www.ips-dc.org/reports/#770
New "Dirty is the New Clean" report on World Bank's climate framework: www.ips-dc.org/reports-list.php#780
Two-page World Bank and Climate factsheet: http://www.foe.org/Climate_Investment_Funds/WorldBank-ClimateOverview.pdf
~ Friends of the Earth International ~
Oil Change International is a great org. that works on this issue. They also focus on the connections between Oil and Congress--I recommend their site as a resource for anyone interested in hard numbers on which representatives accept how much in oil money and from whom--and then how that corresponds to their votes on energy and policy bills. It's pretty interesting:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.followtheoilmoney.org/
There's also a related site (http://endoilaid.org) that gives the background and latest on US oil aid and has another interactive database that tracks how much the international oil industry has received in subsidies. Highly recommended as ammo for scathing blog commentary!
Greenwashing such as what these groups are protesting is a major issue in the world today. The public believes that companies and international institutions such as the World Bank are doing something about our energy crisis, but they really are not. There is no way that coal will ever be clean and offshore drilling will not reduce our dependence on foreign oil. The only answers lay in clean renewable energy like solar and wind.
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