----------
> From: soren at igc.org
> To: stop-wb-imf at 50years.org
> Subject: (50 Years) Leaked World Bank Memo Says Oil, Gas, and Mining
Investments Pose “Clear and Present Danger
> Date: Saturday, April 28, 2001 6:12 AM
>
> Daphne Wysham <dwysham at seen.org> wrote:
> > Please circulate
>
>
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – APRIL 27, 2001
>
> CONTACT:
> Daphne Wysham, Institute for Policy Studies: 202-234-9382,
> extension 208
>
> Leaked World Bank Memo Says Oil, Gas, and Mining Investments Pose
>
> “Clear and Present Danger”
>
> Document fuels urgency for Bank to reassess polluting projects
>
> *** Documents and further background available on www.seen.org
> ****
>
> Washington, DC -- The $2 billion dollars per year the World Bank
>
> Group has invested in oil, gas, and mining projects in poor and
> developing countries presents a “clear and present danger” to the
>
> global environment, according to an internal Bank memo obtained
> by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and released today.
>
> The World Bank memo comes amid growing criticisms that
> Bank-financed oil, gas, and mining projects are harming the
> environment and causing a host of social problems in poor
> nations. The complaints from affected communities and
> environmental and human rights advocates around the world
> prompted the Bank to announce recently it will launch a full
> review of its extractive resource investments.
>
> The internal memo, which was prepared for staff of the World
> Bank’s private sector lending arm, the International Finance
> Corporation (IFC), ranked oil, gas, mining, and non-renewable
> power projects at the top of a list of risky projects. Reasons
> given for this ranking included “global concern over inherent
> sustainability of extractive industries,” and “compelling
> evidence of accelerating global warming—anticipated international
>
> clamor for action on GHGs [greenhouse gases].” Greenhouse gases
> such as carbon dioxide (CO2) are produced when oil, gas and coal
> are mined and burned and are the main cause of climate change.
>
> “We welcome the recognition of the ‘clear and present danger’
> posed to people and the environment wherever the World Bank has
> backed massive oil, gas, and mining projects,” said Daphne Wysham
>
> of IPS. “This memo shows the World Bank understands such
> investments contradict its mandate of sustainable development and
>
> poverty alleviation.”
>
> Another internal Bank document obtained by IPS outlines the
> profitability of the oil, gas and mining sector for the World
> Bank. That memo stated, “By sector, Oil, Gas and Mining had by
> far the highest equity return after specific provisions (26.6%).”
>
> “The question now is whether the World Bank will heed its own
> warnings and reach the only logical conclusion: a full phase-out
> of oil, gas, and mining projects,” said Wysham, “or continue to
> pursue such projects at the expense of the public and the world’s
>
> poorest.”
>
> (MORE)
> OIL, GAS, AND MINING / 2
>
>
> Since the Climate Convention was signed in 1992, the World Bank
> Group has invested $15.7 billion in oil, gas, coal, and fossil
> fuel-power projects around the world, and only $1 billion in
> renewable energy and energy efficiency. Among their current
> investments is a pipeline from Chad to Cameroon, approved in
> 2000, projected to contribute 446.4 million metric tons of GHGs
> into the atmosphere. The Bank is also heavily involved in
> financing oil and gas in the Caspian Sea region. Several
> projects it has helped finance in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan will
> eventually release 17 billion metric tons of CO2 into the
> atmosphere – this is equivalent to more than one half of all
> global annual emissions.
>
> In addition to the threat of climate change, the harmful impacts
> of fossil fuel investments to the world’s poorest are clear:
>
> · The poor are the most likely to be forced off of their land and
>
> made homeless by oil, gas, and mining 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.
> · There is an alarming record of human rights abuses by
> governments and corporations associated with fossil fuel
> operations, resulting in forced relocation, and the brutal and
> sometimes deadly suppression of critics. Citizens in Chad and
> Cameroon voiced loud concerns to the World Bank that the
> financing and revenues for the Chad-Cameroon oil project would
> fuel an ongoing civil war and intimidation of citizens in
> affected communities – fears that seemed justified when it was
> revealed that the President of Chad spent millions of dollars of
> project funds on weapons.
> · Oil and gas exploration, mining and new roads (which are often
> an indirect result of oil, gas and mining exploration) currently
> threaten frontier forests in critical hotspot countries around
> the world, including the Russian Far East, South America and West
>
> Africa. Coal mining in eastern India threatens to destroy the
> last remaining habitat for the endangered tiger.
> · 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.
> For further information, see www.seen.org.
> ###
>
>
>
> --
> Institute for Policy Studies
> Sustainable Energy & Economy Network
> 733-15th St., NW
> Suite 1020
> Washington, DC 20005
> 202-234-9382, x208 (o)
> 202-387-7915 (f)
>
>
>
>
>
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