International Environmental Group
Calls On World Bank To Stop Funding
Oil, Gas, And Mining Projects
Extraction Linked To Ecological
And Social Harm, Little Payoff For
Poor
CONTACT:
In Prague: Jennifer Kelly, EMS ++
44-7967-678-097
Andrea Durbin, Friends of the Earth ++
44 7967-678-180
In Washington, DC: Deborah Rephan, EMS
202-463-1310, ext. 267
PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC ‚ The world's
largest environmental federation today
called on the World Bank Group and
other international financial
institutions (IFIs) to establish an
immediate moratorium on financing new
fossil fuel exploration and mining
projects in ecologically sensitive
areas. The one-million member group
Friends of the Earth International
(FoEI) said the moratorium should be
the first step toward a total phase out
of new fossil fuel and mining
exploration investments.
Activists from FoEI issued their
call before a backdrop of oil barrels
and a banner reading "World Bank Get
Out of Oil, Mining, and Gas Projects",
set up outside the Prague Congress
Center where World Bank and
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
officials are holding their annual
meeting.
"Oil, gas, and mining operations
have left a legacy of ecological
destruction and social upheaval on the
world's poorest in the 20th century,"
said Ricardo Navarro, Chairman of FoEI
and Director of the group's El Salvador
office. "If the World Bank truly seeks
to end poverty and suffering, there is
no justification to carry these
investments into the 21st century."
According to a report FoEI released
today, there is no statistical evidence
demonstrating that fossil fuel and
mining investments substantially
enhance GDP for most developing
nations, or that they deliver
measurable benefits to the poor. Yet
the World Bank Group alone devoted
nearly $6 billion in investments, loans
and guarantees to fossil fuel and
mining projects between 1995 and 1999.
Combined with similar backing from
other IFIs during that period, that
amount totaled $51 billion.
Yet the report explains, with
country-by-country examples, that the
problems associated with such projects
take their worst and first toll on the
world's poor. Among the damaging
impacts of oil, gas, and mining:
‚ Oil spills, gas flaring and
improper waste disposal result in toxic
releases that are dangerous and even
deadly to humans, and can poison
groundwater, livestock and marine
resources upon which the poor depend
for subsistence. These effects are
particularly acute in developing
nations where environmental standards
and enforcement are often weaker or
non-existent, as evidenced in Nigeria's
oil fields;
‚ Locally affected communities
rarely get any of the "modern" benefits
of such projects like fuel or
electricity;
‚ By continuing to invest huge sums
in fossil fuels, the World Bank and
other IFIs are increasing the emission
of greenhouse gases that cause global
warming, undercutting any gains from
the Kyoto Protocol. Global warming is
associated with increased flooding,
drought, crop destruction and the
spread of infectious diseases, impacts
that take their harshest toll on the
poor. It is estimated that the Bank's
recently approved Chad-Cameroon oil
pipeline project alone will ultimately
contribute 446.4 million metric tons of
the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into
the atmosphere;
‚ Exploitation of fossil fuels has
all too often led to brutal and
sometimes deadly suppression of human
rights, when affected communities
demand fair compensation or
environmental clean-up. Such projects
have also caused forced resettlement of
local and indigenous peoples.
The report explains how a phase out
of fossil fuel and mining projects by
the World Bank and other IFIs should
start with a moratorium on new
exploration in biologically rich or
ecologically pristine areas such as
intact tropical rainforests and marine
areas. FoEI says the Bank should then
develop a concrete action plan over the
next year that supports a complete
phase out of such investments, and
emphasizes lending that directly
alleviates poverty through
environmentally and socially
sustainable energy services.
The FoEI report, "Phasing Out Public
Financing for Fossil Fuel and Mining
Projects" can be found on www.foe.org.
For an interactive map profiling World
Bank oil, gas, and mining projects,
visit www.ems.org
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