By Julie M.
Posted on March 10, 2010. Listed in:
A report released in February revealed that the Royal Scottish Bank (RSB ), along with other UK banks, has been providing loans worth billons of dollars over the past three years to companies that are involved in tar sands mining in Canada.
The report, compiled by several environmental organizations including the World Development Movement , PLATFORM , and Friends of the Earth , showed that RSB is involved in the highest quantity of loans to tar sands-related companies, equaling eight percent of the global total. The environmentalists are challenging the UK treasury over the bank's use of public money to finance these companies that worsen climate change and show a complete disregard for human rights.
Tar sands , a form of oil combined with particulate matter that must be separated, are the second-largest resource of oil in the world. Converting them into a usable form of oil produces approximately three times more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil extraction. Additionally, the process creates extremely toxic byproducts that can leak into water sources and are suspected of causing rare cancers in local communities of Canada's indigenous people.
Clayton Thomas-Muller, an indigenous activist from Canada, was quoted in a press release from “Unraveling the Carbon Web,” a project by PLATFORM to reduce the environmental and social impact of oil corporations, saying, “RBS must publicly commit to not providing finance to Canada's tar sands. Failure to do so would b morally bankrupt giving the developments entail massive ecological destruction and human rights abuses, particularly in First Nations lands.”
The World Development Movement has announced a week of protests to coincide with the RBS annual general meeting to be held on April 28, 2010 in Edinburgh. And at the same time, a British coalition of green organizations has launched a campaign to mobilize the public to petition their pension funds in support of tar sands resolutions expected to be voted on at the BP and Shell annual general meetings to held this spring.
The resolutions were proposed by a group of investors supported by groups that include Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Federation, PLATFORM, and The Co-operative. UK-based lobby group, FairPensions, has developed an innovative online tool on its website that, for the first time, allows pension fund members to contact pensions providers directly to request their support of the resolutions.
Those who don't have a pension may email a BP or Shell shareholder or legal or general personnel. According to FairPensions, if a large enough group of BP and Shell shareholders support the resolutions, it will send a strong message to the oil companies that they must change their behavior with regard to the environment.
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