To: all organizations and movements concerned with fossil fuel and
mining projects


Dear friends,


In the run up to the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the IMF
(Sept 28 and 29), we are seeking your support for a campaign that aims
to phase out International Financial Institution financing for fossil
fuel and mining projects. You can read more about it below or at
<www.foei.org/ifi/ffm.html> (in four languages and hopefully soon also
in russian).

Many of you have already joined this NGO platform,that
currently consists of 130 organizations from all over the world.
If your organization has not endorsed the call yet, I would like to
invite you to do so. We will present it to World Bank president
Wolfensohn during the World Bank annual meeting in some memorable
way....

Best wishes,

Janneke  <janneke@foei.org


Appeal:
Towards a Phase-Out of International Financial Institution Support of
Fossil Fuel and Mining Projects

We, the undersigned organizations, are
calling for an immediate moratorium on, and subsequent phase-out of
all financing for fossil fuel and mining projects by International
Financial Institutions, including Multilateral Development Banks and
Export Credit Agencies.

It is estimated that from 1995-1999, IFIs
allocated around US$55 billion to projects in these sectors (not
including fossil fuel thermal generating plants). This financing
catalyzed even more private sector financing. Problems associated with
fossil fuel and mining development include:

Environmental destruction

Fossil fuel and mining projects threaten biodiversity and destroy
pristine lands. Toxic spills, oil flares, and mining waste destroy
local ecosystems and harm human health. On a global level, fossil fuel
projects contribute to catastrophic climate change, and worsen already
increasing temperatures, rising sea levels, and volatile weather
patterns.

Human rights violations

Fossil fuel and mining extraction is
too often associated with repression, violations of human rights, and
suppression of the rights of indigenous peoples. Projects have
forcibly displaced indigenous peoples and destroyed their way of life.
Authoritarian regimes use repression as a way to protect projects and
their investors. These conflicts over resources, access to land, and
compensation can fuel already volatile social situations and lead to
armed conflict.

Dubious development impact

There is no body of
statistical evidence demonstrating that fossil fuel and mining
investments substantially enhance GDP for most ‘developing’ countries,
or that these projects automatically deliver measurable benefits to
the communities that need it most. In fact, some research shows that
extraction-based economies have lower development indices than natural
resource-poor countries, partly the result of corruption and
rent-seeking.

For these reasons, we call on publicly financed
International Financial Institutions to phase out of financing fossil
fuel and mining investments. Instead they should use their scarce
resources for projects that tackle the dual challenge of combating
poverty and stopping catastrophic climate change.

This phase-out
should cover all phases of the fossil-fuel and mining cycles:
prospecting, exploration, test drilling, exploitation, as well as
construction of related infrastructure such as pipelines and roads,
and any financial and regulatory advice or programs by IFIs that favor
such projects. While there could be some exceptions to the phase-out,
these should only be determined through genuine local participatory
processes, and local communities should retain the right to veto
projects. This phase-out should be complemented by a phase-in of
energy investments that meet the energy needs of the poor, and are
based on renewable energy and energy efficiency projects that should
be the standard for meeting future energy demands.

For the reasons set
out above, the undersigned organizations call on International
Financial Institutions (MDBs and ECAs) to agree on a moratorium for
new investments in fossil fuel and mining projects.

This moratorium
would allow for:

The establishment of a strict ban on financing by any
IFI for any new fossil fuel and minerals exploration projects in areas
of high conservation value, territories of indigenous peoples’ and
nations, areas where local communities oppose such projects, and areas
where investments will exacerbate armed conflict.

IFIs should
immediately consult and work openly with civil society and governments
to establish these critical no-go zones. A detailed reevaluation of
all pending projects which have an impact on the areas mentioned
above, with the objective to find better alternatives for these
projects or to cancel the project when no such alternatives exist

Development of concrete action plans for a complete phase-out of
financing for these types of projects within five years. These plans
should systematically identify policies and projects that help
phase-in a positive targeted energy lending shift, to enable IFIs to
target the dual goal of eradicating poverty and preventing
catastrophic climate change.

IFIs must assume responsibility for any
damage caused by their projects to ecosystems and to the economic and
social situations of communities. It is therefore necessary to carry
out a study of the impacts that energy policies and projects of IFIs
have had on developing countries and the plight of specific
communities. IFIs must provide resources for the compensation of
damage and the physical restoration of affected areas.
IFIs must
acknowledge the need to limit investments in other sectors and
projects that are based on technologies with high use of fossil fuels
and oil byproducts.

IFIs should respect the sovereign rights of
communities to choose their own development path, based on their own
priorities and preferences. Therefore, IFIs must establish
participatory systems through which communities to be affected by IFI
financed projects can freely establish their decisions on the project,
with the capacity to modify or veto such projects.

Export Credit
Agencies have been documented to finance the environmental and social
destruction of local communities and to exacerbate long-term global
climate change. ECAs must begin meaningful transformation towards
binding environmental standards and portfolio shifts away from fossil
fuels and towards renewable energy within two years, or they should be
abolished.