RBS outed for pro-tar sands lobbying
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May 10, 2012
Despite vehemently protesting our calculations of £2.5 billion in Canadian tar sands finance 2008-2010, the Royal Bank of Scotland is today reported by Reuters to be closely involved in the pro-Canadian tar sands lobby in Europe.
Oil projects too far – banks & investors refuse finance for Arctic oil
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Apr 24, 2012
West LB have decided not to finance oil & gas development projects in the arctic and F & C have dropped Arctic oil explorers Cairn from their ethical portfolio. The German corporate finance & investment bank, West LB, launched a new environmental policy in February and its guidelines are important in relation to the push...
Care about the climate? Move Your Money out of RBS/Natwest
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Mar 1, 2012
Pinch and a punch, first day of the Move Your Money month! All over the country, people are cutting up their cash cards from the main big banks and shifting their cash to ethical banks, credit unions and building societies, as part of Move Your Money’s sustained campaign to get people to stop providing banks...
Egyptian businessman admits personal motivation for gas deal with Spain / Eni
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Feb 25, 2012
Businessman Hussein Salem – on the run from corruption charges in Egypt – admitted his personal & political motivations in signing Egypt’s controversial gas export deals with Israel (via pipeline) and Spain (via Damietta LNG), in discussion with Egyptian journalist Mohamed Heikal: “Yes I made gas deals with Israel. We have a lot of gas...
RBS and Climate Week – who dumped who?
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Nov 21, 2011
News has reached us that RBS isn’t sponsoring the 2012 Climate Week, due to take place in March. RBS was a controversial sponsor of last year’s event, which many saw as an opportunity for the bank to gain some ill-deserved environmental credentials in the face of public criticism over its appalling record of fossil fuel...
RBS financed Canadian Tar Sands company goes under
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Aug 2, 2011
Big Canadian tar sands company’s downfall shows that RBS’ tar sands finance is risky and reckless. OPTI Canada Inc. is in the process of being acquired by Chinese oil and gas exploration and production company CNOOC Ltd. CNOOC will pay US$2.1m for the Alberta-based company focused on developing major oil sands projects in Canada. OPTI Canada has...
RBS, what are you waiting for?
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Apr 20, 2011
Yesterday the Royal Bank of Scotland held their 2011 Annual General Meeting at their Gogarburn headquarters on the industrial edge of Edinburgh (see Press Association video with Clayton Thomas-Muller from Indigenous Environmental Network and myself). The conference centre was flanked by press jesting with shareholders about diminishing returns. Much of the press group made a dash for...
New report released today – RBS coal finance on launch day of RBS-sponsored Climate Week
Blog post -
Mar 21, 2011
Download the report – www.platformlondon.org/dm.pdf Watch the video – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuWGg6a__gE Check out the online presentation summary – http://prezi.com/2zc3gxujogli/dirty-money/ All over the world, diverse groups from community activists to schoolchildren, small businesses to faith-based networks, are starting to take action on climate change. Big business is following suit, but often with tactics that bring their integrity into question. Climate...
Follow the Money – RBS article in Foto8 Magazine
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Nov 16, 2010
(This article first appeared in the current, oil-themed issue of Foto8 magazine – http://www.foto8.com/new/in-print/8-magazine ) Despite the fact that there is not a single drop of crude to be found underneath the streets of London, the city acts as one the international capitals of the oil industry. Companies operate here to take advantage of the complex web...
Oil companies & RBS profited off state terror in Sudan
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Jun 14, 2010
A Chatham House event last Thursday launched the new report “Unpaid Debt: The Legacy of Lundin, Petronas and OMV in Sudan, 1997-2003,” on the role of oil companies in fuelling war and atrocities in Sudan. A group of aid agencies that worked in Sudan during the civil war, the European Coalition on Oil in Sudan (ECOS), have called for an...
RBS AGM – the aftermath and the follow up
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May 19, 2010
On the 28th of April, RBS held its Annual General Meeting in Edinburgh. Amidst the various motions relating to executive bonuses and a report back on the rocky road to recovery, two people raised concerns over the impact that RBS’ investments were having on indigenous communities in very different parts of the world. Eriel Tchekwie...
BP’s ‘absentee landlords’ under pressure to stop tar sands
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Apr 19, 2010
Yesterday, people from all over the country streamed into the Excel Conference Centre in the London Docklands to take part in the financial theatre that is the BP Annual General Meeting. One of the people who was protesting outside remarked that there was a “surprisingly low shareholder turnout of hedge fund managers in suits, and...
