PRESS RELEASE
13 october 2006
A SEED Europe, Friends of the Earth
International, World Information Service on
Energy, XminY Solidarity Fund
ACTIVISTS DEFY CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE
IN AMSTERDAM "Save our climate, not their oil
profits"
AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS, 13 OCTOBER
2006 -- On Monday Oct 16, international
activists will expose the truth behind sham
solutions to climate change promoted at a
high-level conference in Amsterdam.
The conference, promoted by the World
Bank, oil giant Royal Dutch Shell and Dutch
Bank ABN-AMRO, takes place on October 16 and
17 at the Tuschinski Theater in
Amsterdam.
The activists will express their
disillusion with the conference, which they
say will save corporate profits instead of
helping fight global climate change. Starting
at 2pm on October 16, a visually attractive
open-air “Teach-In” will be staged in front
of the Tuschinski Theater and focus on the
malpractices of the institutions attending
the conference.
How to use markets to reduce greenhouse
gases is the main subject of the conference,
entitled 'Make Markets Work for Climate'.
International financial institutions and
energy corporations hope to find market-based
solutions to fight climate change. Funding
for nuclear energy and large-scale dam
construction, and trading with greenhouse
emissions are high on the agenda.
'None of the solutions proposed at this
conference will offer a real cure for climate
change. On the contrary, they give no
incentives for Northern countries to reduce
their oil consumption and lower the level of
greenhouse gases that cause climate change',
said Soile Koskinen of A SEED Europe.
Under the United Nations climate regime,
Northern countries were granted pollution
credits that they currently trade. 'Northern
governments are offering corporations and
banks the opportunity to make profit out of
trading invisible gases with poor countries.
Instead, they should take responsibility for
climate change and lower carbon dioxide
emissions in their home country' added Ms
Koskinen.
'Greenhouse gases are generated in the
production cycle of nuclear energy as well.
Moreover, we still face great environmental
and safety risks in nuclear power plants
operations' said Peer de Rijk of the
Amsterdam-based World Information Service on
Energy (WISE).
'Having displaced more than 40 million
people, large hydropower dam projects are not
a clean or renewable source of electricity.
Dam-construction has led to irreversible loss
of species and ecosystems and generates
carbon dioxide emissions', said Longgena
Ginting of Friends of the Earth
International. He added: 'If the conference
organizers are genuine about stopping climate
change, they should stop funding oil, gas and
coal-mining projects and redirect finance
towards alternative sources of energy.'
The World Bank plays an important role in
the climate change dialogue. The
institution's new “Clean energy and
investment framework” draws upon nuclear and
large-scale hydro-power energy generation as
clean and beneficial for the climate. The
Bank has been advocating carbon dioxide
trading for more than ten years now. As a
result, the institution has become the
largest public broker of carbon purchases,
with up to $1 billion in its carbon credit
portfolio. At the same time, the Bank invests
between $2 and $3 billion a year in
greenhouse gas-generating projects, which
ease climate change and hurt the world’s
poor.
For more information:
Filka Sekulova +31 20-6682236,
filka@aseed.net
Rabbe Dormans +31 6-55965136, rabbe
@aseed.net
Longgena Ginting +31 6-42811585
ginting@foei.org
Peer de Rijk +31 6-20000626
wiseamster@antenna.nl
NOTES TO EDITORS
* Conference website: Make Markets Work
for Climate:
http://www.makemarketswork.com
*More information about the World Bank's
role is available in the new report 'How the
World Bank is selling the climate and poor
people short' by Friends of the Earth
International and others:
http://www.foei.org/publications/pdfs/wbenergyreport.pdf
* Background information on carbon trading:
"Carbon Trading: A Critical Conversation on
Climate Change, Privatisation and Power", Dag
Hammarskj?ld Foundation, the Durban Group for
Climate Justice, and The Corner House;
http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk
* Background information on the conference,
World Bank, emission trading and climate
change:
http://www.aseed.net/worldbank
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