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The Treasury, UKFI and RBS – the Government’s biggest climate change failure
Evidence submitted by Green Alliance, People & Planet, Platform and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds to the parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee. This evidence outlines the extent to which RBS are continuing to provide finance for significant projects responsible for climate changing emissions, what UKFI is doing about this, what they would need…
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Royal Bank of Sustainability?
At the end of 2008, UK taxpayers became majority owners of the Royal Bank of Scotland, one of Britain’s largest banks. So, since we’ve paid for it, shouldn’t we have some say in how it is run? Kevin Smith, from the campaigning organisation Platform, puts the case – https://www.redpepper.org.uk/Royal-Bank-of-Sustainability/. In the year since it was…
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Shell Must Clean Up Its Act in Nigeria
First published in The Guardian, by Chima Williams (Environmental Rights Action/FoE Nigeria) as told to Ben Amunwa. As Nigerian villagers take Shell to court over huge oil spills, it’s time for the group to take responsibility for polluting practices. A court in The Hague is considering whether Shell can be held liable for alleged pollution in Nigeria, and…
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Why we’re taking the Treasury to Court
This article first appeared in the Guardian Comment is Free on the 20th October 2009. Today we are taking the government to court – Her Majesty’s Treasury to the high courts of justice on the Strand to be precise. The application – made by Platform, World Development Movement and People & Planet – for a judicial review of the Treasury’s lack…
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Nationalised banks must go green
Environmental groups are suing the Treasury in an effort to ensure that RBS invests only in sustainable and ethical projects – This article was originally published at https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/30/rbs-nationalised-banks-green. Since the banking crisis last year, RBS has remained firmly in the public eye as the most controversial bank in the UK. Beyond the populist pillorying of Fred Goodwin’s…
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Wiwa v Shell: The day of reckoning
First published in Reuters. By Ben Amunwa When the news broke of a settlement in the Wiwa v Shell case, a cacophony of responses soon flooded my inbox. Hailed as a victory for human rights by some, others felt disappointed that Shell could throw money in the face of justice. In such a high profile and emotive legal…
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Platform witness statement in RBS court case against the Treasury
Court Ref: CO/5323/2009 In the Administrative Court High Courts of Justice Between: Platform World Development Movement People and Planet Claimants and Commissioners of HM Treasury Defendant First Witness Statement of Kevin Smith Background 1. I, KEVIN SMITH of Platform, 7 Horselydown Lane, London SE1 2LN, make this statement in support of our application for permission…
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Remember Saro-Wiwa? Shell would rather you didn’t
The Guardian, full page advert. On November 10th 1995, the writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged by the Nigerian government. He was executed, alongside eight of his colleagues from the Ogoni people, for campaigning against the environmental devastation of the Niger Delta by Shell and other oil companies. The central abuse which Ken fought…
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Ken Saro-Wiwa: the day of truth?
The Guardian by Kevin Smith Ken Saro-Wiwa: the day of truth? It will send shockwaves through boardrooms if the predictions of the executed campaigner are proved right in a US court. As shareholders gather today in London and The Hague for Shell’s annual general meeting the board is facing difficult questions over the company’s environmental and human…
