Friends of the Earth International
MEDIA ADVISORY
'World Bank Pull Out of Oil and Coal' Now
Official Advice
November 25, 2003 - Washington, DC (US) -
An independent review commissioned by the
World Bank and released today [1] recommends
the Bank to stop financing all coal and oil
projects in developing countries.
Many of the recommendations of this
Extractive Industries Review final report,
due to be discussed only on December 11-13,
point to an important shift away from
traditional support to the extractive
industries and are likely to meet strong
resistance from the bank's shareholder
countries.
"The recommendation to immediately end
financing for coal and 'phase out investments
in oil production by 2008' is a progressive
and welcome step," said Janneke Bruil of
Friends of the Earth International. "It is
important that the harmful and dangerous
effects of such investment are acknowledged
by influential public funders," she
added.
Friends of the Earth strongly encourages
the World Bank shareholder countries to adopt
and support this "phase out investments in
oil production" recommendation without
delay.
The new report also recommends to step up
funding for renewable energy projects, citing
the need to combat climate change and this
recommendation was welcomed by Friends of the
Earth International.
Similarly, Friends of the Earth welcomed
the report's recommendation of 'Free, Prior
and Informed Consent' for communities and
indigenous people that are to be impacted by
the Bank's projects.
The environmental federation also believes
that the suggested phase out in coal and oil
projects should be extended to large-scale
mining.
The report recommends steps forward in
regulating the mining industry, recognising
local people's rights and implementing 'best
practice'. However the devastating and
irreversible social and environmental impacts
of the mining industry would not be fully
mitigated even if all EIR recommendations
were put into practice.
For this reason Friends of the Earth
International believes that the World Bank
should withdraw from large-scale mining
altogether. Development finance should
instead be used to support job transition,
mine closure, reparations payment and
alternative solutions such as re-use,
recycling and reducing consumption.
Funding from the World Bank's private
sector arm, the International Finance
Corporation, is highly influential in giving
a political stamp of international approval
to oil, mining and gas projects, the benefits
of which are often questionable while the
negative impacts are significant, as laid out
clearly in the EIR report.
Despite strong opposition from civil
society organisations, two of the most
controversial bank projects of recent years -
the Chad- Cameroon oil pipeline in Africa and
the Caspian oil pipeline (Baku-
Tsibilisi-Ceyan) - "have been pushed through
by the World Bank's management and its
shareholder countries, particularly the US,"
according to a recent Financial Times report
[2]
The Financial Times article also
states:
"The [Extractive Industries Review]
consultation process was initially marked by
accusations of bad faith from
non-governmental organisations. NGOs such as
Friends of the Earth and the Washington-based
Institute for Policy Studies accused the
World Bank of trying to exert undue influence
over the process and of giving too large a
voice to business representatives. Bernard
Salomé, a bank official who was appointed as
secretary to the review, recently left after
repeated complaints that the process was
being hijacked by the bank."
For more information:
Carol Welch, Friends of the Earth US in
Washington,
+1-202-7837400 or +1-202-744-8048
(mobile)
Janneke Bruil, Friends of the Earth
International in Amsterdam
+31-20-6221369 or +31-6-52118998
(mobile)
NOTES TO EDITORS:
[1] the Extractive Industries Report is
available at
www.eireview.org
[2] Financial Times; Nov 20, 2003 "World
Bank advised to pull out of oil and coal
financing" By Alan Beattie in Washington
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