Grote banken als JP Morgan Chase (ook met kantoor in Nederland) en Wells Fargo (en als ik me niet vergis ING) hebben de zogenaamde Equator Principles getekend. Dit betekent dat ze bij de financiering van grote infrastructurele projecten rekening houden met de sociale aanvaardbaarheid van dergelijke projecten (waarbij de belangen van de oorspronkelijke bewoners in acht moeten worden genomen) en moeten proberen te voorkomen dat de klimaatverandering verder wordt aangejaagd. Er zijn meer voorwaarden aan de Equator Priciples verbonden, verderop vindt u een meer uitgebreide uitleg, het komt erop neer dat die banken in feite duurzaamheid voorop moeten stellen bij voornoemde financieringen.

‘Vreemd’ dat die ondertekenaars met het grootste gemak smerige projecten steunen, zoals de Dakota Acces Pipeline (DAPL)……… Vreemd tussen aanhalingstekens, daar het de normaalste zaak van de wereld is geworden dat grote smerige bedrijven zich met het grootste gemak duurzaam durven te noemen.

Van 23 tot 25 oktober a.s. vindt er een overleg in Brazilië plaats van de banken die de Equator Principles hebben getekend, tijd dat de banken daar wordt gewezen op hun verantwoordelijkheid.

De volgende tekst behoort bij een petitie die ik afgelopen woensdag ontving van Rainforest Action Network (RAN), lees en teken de petitie ajb en wijs de grote banken daarmee op hun verantwoordelijkheid die ze dragen (als u Netherlands zoekt in de landenlijst, deze staat als tweede genoemd en dus niet op alfabetische volgorde):

Tell
Big Banks: Protect Climate and Indigenous rights!

Did
you know that big banks funded the disastrous Dakota Access Pipeline
(DAPL) under the Equator Principles* — the supposedly premier
guidelines for responsible lending practices? 

This
is a problem. Tell the Equator Banks to make a change.

The
Equator Principles didn’t stop banks like Wells Fargo from
financing DAPL. They didn’t stop banks like JPMorgan Chase from
financing the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline.
Despite enormous impacts on our shared climate, and unacceptable
abuses of the rights of Indigenous Peoples, disaster projects like
these have all been financed under the Equator Principles.

Equator
Banks, act! Stop financing climate disasters, and respect Indigenous
Peoples’ rights and territories.

This
October, over 90 of the world’s largest banks will meet in Brazil
to discuss their commitments under the Equator Principles, a
collectively agreed set of rules for responsible financing of big
infrastructure projects. We are teaming up with hundreds of other
organizations to demand that the Equator Banks commit to stop
financing climate disasters and fully respect Indigenous Peoples’
rights and territories.

Join
us: tell the Equator Banks to act on climate and Indigenous rights.

We
need thousands of people like you to add their name to the petition.
We will deliver this petition ahead of their October meeting.

Add
your name now!

Stop Financing Climate Disasters, Respect Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Territories

This
October, over ninety of the world’s largest banks will meet in
Brazil to discuss their commitments under the Equator Principles, a
collectively agreed set of rules for financing big infrastructure
projects. These ‘Equator Banks’ have all promised to finance such
projects in a ‘socially responsible manner’ and to avoid negative
impacts on climate change wherever possible.

It
sounds good, but it’s not working.

The
Principles as they are written now are not stopping banks from
financing disaster projects that have a devastating impact on the
climate. Coal power plants, coal mines, tar sands exploration and
transport, oil pipelines, LNG plants, deepwater oil rigs, exploration
projects in the Arctic and more, have all qualified for bank lending
under the Equator Principles.

Nor
are these Principles stopping banks from financing disaster projects
that trample on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, fully recognised in
international law, to reject projects they do not want on their
traditional territories. From the Americas to Australia, Indigenous
Peoples find themselves on the front line of struggles against fossil
fuel extraction and transport projects, but also large hydro and
other infrastructure projects that threaten their lands and
traditional way of life.

The
Dakota Access Pipeline in the United States, fiercely opposed by the
Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Lakota Tribes, and the Agua Zarca
hydro project in Honduras, where Indigenous leader Berta Cáceres was
murdered for leading the Lenca people’s opposition to the project,
are but two examples of projects financed by banks under the Equator
Principles.

What
good are such Principles when they allow these disaster projects to
be built?

We demand that
at their meeting this October, Equator Banks commit to a new set of
Principles that stops the financing of climate disasters and fully
respects Indigenous Peoples’ rights and territories.

Please
read our Call to the Equator Banks below, then sign up by
using the form.

This
October 23-25, 91 banks will meet in São Paulo, Brazil to discuss
their social and environmental commitments under the Equator
Principles.

While
these Principles are to ensure that adopting banks do not finance
projects with a large negative impact on people and planet, Equator
Banks continue to support projects that pose a massive threat to the
world’s climate, such as coal, oil and gas extraction,
transportation and power generation projects. Equator Banks also
continue to finance fossil fuel and other projects that trample on
the rights and interests of Indigenous Peoples.

We
are appalled that the Equator Principles as formulated today allow
Equator Banks to finance projects that are a disaster for the
world’s’ climate and for Indigenous peoples. For the Principles to
be a meaningful sustainability commitment they need to be fully
overhauled.

We
therefore call on the Equator Principles Association to agree in
Brazil to a full revision process for the Principles, so that they
reflect at
minimum two
solid commitments:

1.
Stop Financing Climate Disasters:

• include
  a full commitment to the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global
  temperature rise to below 2 degrees, aiming for 1,5 degrees;

• include
  stringent and binding criteria that all projects to be financed
  under the Equator framework be fully aligned with reaching the Paris
  Agreement goals; and for this reason:

• explicitly
  exclude all new fossil fuel extraction, transportation and power
  projects from financing under the Equator Principles.

2.
Respect Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Territories:

• include
  an explicit commitment to respect the right of Indigenous Peoples
  anywhere in the world to withhold their consent for projects
  situated on territories they traditionally use and occupy;

• commit
  to not financing projects, neither directly or indirectly, that did
  not obtain such consent;

• strengthen
  due diligence and consultation processes to ensure that Indigenous
  Peoples’ rights are fully respected;

• ensure
  that Indigenous Peoples and other project-affected communities have
  full access to grievance channels with project sponsors and
  financing banks when their rights and interests are violated.

In
Brazil, Equator Banks face a choice between deepening their
collective commitment to effectively stop financing climate change
and respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights, or see the Equator
initiative become irrelevant for meeting the pressing social and
environmental challenges the world faces today. We expect that the
Equator Banks will act decisively on this call.

Voor het tekenen, hier de link naar de bewuste pagina, waar u aan de rechter kant ‘uw handtekening’ kan zetten.

* The Equator Principles: a collectively agreed set of rules for financing big infrastructure projects. These ‘Equator Banks’ have all promised to finance such projects in a ‘socially responsible manner’ and to avoid negative impacts on climate change wherever possible.

Moet u nagaan: eerst hebben de grote banken een groot deel bvan de wereld in een diepe crisis gestort,blijkbaar is dat niet genoeg en willen de topgraaiers van die banken de wereld zelf om zeep helpen……

ING stapte na langdurig protest uit de DAPL.

Zie ook: ‘Grote banken moeten stoppen met het financieren van klimaatrampen en de rechten van de oorspronkelijke bevolking her en der respecteren!‘

PS: overtreding van de Equator Principles kent geen sanctie, het is dan ook een flut-convenant van de banken, waarmee ze hun smerige investeringen schoon denken te wassen……