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Grist Magazine Colleen Freeman is a policy analyst at Friends of the Earth-U.S. and Peter Bossard is policy director at International Rivers Network. They took part in discussions between environmental and other nonprofit groups and officials of the World Bank and IMF in the lead-up to the institutions' annual spring meetings held April 24-25.
In the days leading up to the official meetings, civil society ostensibly had its say in the process through a flurry of external "dialogues" arranged by both NGOs and Bank and Fund officials. However, the annual meetings of the Bank and Fund continue to face criticisms for being secretive in part because the proceedings are held behind closed doors and the minutes are not disclosed publicly. Indeed, most of what is known about the meetings is garnered from press releases and a final communique issued by the Development Committee. This year, the World Bank heard a bleak Global Monitoring Report on failing efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and the urgent need for significant action if they are to be met by their target year of 2015. Under the banner of fixing the global imbalance between rich and poor countries, the Development Committee called upon industrialized countries to make concrete efforts to dedicate 0.7 percent of gross national product to development aid and improved aid effectiveness. The sunset of the Heavily Indebted Poor Country Initiative at the end of this year and pressure to revitalize multilateral trade talks were some of the many topics discussed this past weekend. The Bank also affirmed its intention to promote controversial "high-risk/high-reward" projects. Under the auspices of the Bank's Infrastructure Action Plan, the high-risk strategy aims to substantially increase lending for infrastructure development, including large-scale dam projects over the next two years, despite the Bank's poor track record of managing the social and environmental risks that accompany hydropower development. The emergence of the Bank's high-risk/high-reward development strategy comes at a time when the International Finance Corporation -- the Bank's private-sector lending arm -- is embarking on three policy-revision processes. Last week, civil society met with IFC Executive Vice President Peter Woicke to make known their concerns and priorities for the revision of the social and environmental safeguards, information disclosure policies, and the Bank's Pollution Prevention and Abatement Handbook. Several civil-society representatives also met with the newly appointed executive vice president of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, Yukiko Omura. On May 1, Omura will take the helm of the most backward institution of the World Bank Group. MIGA has failed to adopt even the Bank's minimum transparency, environmental, and social standards. Civil society representatives conveyed to the executive vice president-designate that she must make significant reforms of the Bank's private insurance arm or NGOs will call for the abolition of the institution. Another major concern for many in civil society is the future role of the World Bank in the oil, gas, and mining sectors. A global coalition of NGOs met with President James Wolfensohn to discuss a groundbreaking report that calls on the Bank to adopt a number of sweeping reforms for the extractive industries. The Extractive Industries Review was commissioned by Wolfensohn in 2001 in response to international criticism that Bank-financed investments in the extractive industries fail to alleviate poverty and are plagued by massive environmental and social problems. Some of the EIR's recommendations include dramatically increasing investment in clean, renewable energy, phasing out support for fossil fuels, implementing a "no-go zones" policy that would bar Bank investments in ecologically sensitive areas, and granting indigenous and other affected communities the right to prior informed consent. A decision on whether the Bank will adopt the EIR's recommendations is expected later this summer. Finally, the sudden resignation of IMF Head Horst Kohler last month has thrust the democratic deficit and governance problems of the two institutions back into the spotlight this year. By tradition, the
United Press International A recent U.S. Department of Agriculture decision to block a private company from testing all its cattle under 30 months of age for mad cow disease runs contrary to its own records that show it has tested more than 2,000 animals in that age range, United Press International has learned. The concern with mad cow disease is it can produce a fatal, incurable brain disorder in humans called variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease, which is contracted from eating meat infected with the mad-cow pathogen.
"It's amazing that USDA lives by a double standard," said Larry Bohlen of Friends of the Earth, an environmental advocacy group in
The USDA "offered a puny compromise to test older cattle for Creekstone farms when the agency itself has been testing some younger cattle for the last 2 years," Bohlen told UPI. His organization co-signed the letter to USDA and plans a demonstration Wednesday at the agency's headquarters in
Bohlen was referring to a compromise the agency offered Creekstone to test an unspecified number of its animals older than 30 months at USDA-approved labs. Creekstone rejected the deal because it has invested $500,000 in building a state-of-the-art testing facility and nearly all of its animals are under that age at the time of slaughter. Voice of
The plants flower six to eight weeks after being planted. Mr. Oestergaard said his company is conducting intensive research to ensure the plant does not grow out of control, thus choking out desirable food crops on newly de-mined land, or impinging on land that is already landmine-free. These assurances do not satisfy certain environmental groups which oppose genetic modification technology altogether. "There are instances for example, where genetically engineered canola has actually become an uncontrollable weed in Canada despite promises by the biotechnology companies that it would bring great success to canola farmers in Canada," said Lisa Archer, who directs the health and environment campaign for Friends of the Earth in Washington.
"Nature is very unpredictable, whether it's natural plants, or plants created in the laboratory," she added. There is also concern that the vegetation will attract goats and cattle, which in turn may draw animal owners to these potentially dangerous sites. Experts note that whatever technologies are applied to the landmine problem, none of them will work without the political will to put them in place.
There are two very different views of Ventria Bioscience, the company that can turn a field of rice into a factory for producing human medicine. There's the way Ventria sees itself -- as a biotechnology company hard at work on medical products that could save lives. ''Without our technology those products could never end up in use for human health, not in our lifetime,'' says Ventria Chief Executive Scott Deeter. And then there's the view of opponents, who see the firm as a harbinger of a new biotech age that threatens the purity of the food supply and puts growers of conventional crops at risk. Says Bill Freese, a research analyst with Friends of the Earth: ''First of all, these are not human proteins.'' Small differences might trigger allergies and other unexpected responses, he said. Even if there should be a mix-up between Ventria's rice and non-engineered food crops, the two human proteins pose no hazard to consumers, says Delia Bethell, Ventria's vice president of clinical development. ''If you breast-feed a baby for a year, that child consumes 277 grams of lactoferrin,'' she said. A person who ate Ventria's genetically modified rice over an entire year, she said, would consume only 60 grams. The
The yearly cost of enforcing the Endangered Species Act runs into the billions of dollars, not millions as reported to Congress by government agencies, says an audit released yesterday by property rights groups. Brent Blackwelder, president of Friends of the Earth, said the report and its authors want to discredit and gut the environmental act, and display "an incredible ecological ignorance." "They try to contrast species concerns with human needs, and we see those as totally compatible. We as humans need a healthy environment," Mr. Blackwelder said. A healthy population of Northwest salmon would bring in annual revenue of $500 million a year and provide 2,500 jobs, he said. "The costs of destroying endangered species are huge when you look at the benefits to society as a whole," Mr. Blackwelder said. Contra Costa Times (
In a blow to growers of genetically engineered rice, a state agency ruled Friday that the controversial crop cannot be planted this year. Responding to objections made in thousands of phone calls, e-mails, faxes and letters, the Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture refused to authorize the planting of two varieties of rice genetically engineered to contain human proteins. Friday's decision was a victory for farmers and activists who had said the environmental and economic implications were too great to rush through a decision. "The California Department of Food and Agriculture made the right decision," said Bill Freese, a research analyst for Friends of the Earth, an environmental organization. "(These) crops pose risks to human health and the environment that haven't been adequately examined." The human forms of the proteins called lactoferrin and lysozyme are safe for people. But it's not clear whether the rice biotech varieties are harmful to either people or animals. Contamination by biotech seed of conventional rice crops could pose safety problems, Freese said.
NGOs released last week a leaked letter to World Bank President James Wolfensohn being circulated among investment banks seeking to block approval of a report whose recommendations would strengthen environmental and social conditions at the World Bank. The investment banks' letter comes as the World Bank Group weighs adoption of the report, known as the Extractive Industries Review (EIR). NGOs have urged the banks that have endorsed the Equator Principles to end their effort to block the EIR, and to support its recommendations. "It's outrageous that Equator Banks would consider opposing recommendations designed to benefit the poor, particularly since that's the World Bank's mission," said Michelle Chan-Fishel, Program Manager of the Green Investments project of Friends of the Earth - US. "We call on the Equator Banks, particularly Citigroup and the leaders of this initiative, to honor the spirit of the Equator Principles by publicly supporting the EIR recommendations." Marketplace Morning Report An independent review of the World Bank's investments in oil projects around the world shows the multibillion-dollar deals often produce big profits for private companies, but they don't do anything to reduce poverty, and that's forcing the World Bank to rethink whether it should even be in the oil business at all. From
STEVE HENN reporting: Many oil deals in the developing world wouldn't happen without World Bank loans, but Michelle Chan-Fischel at Friends of the Earth believes the bank has better things to do with its cash. Ms. MICHELLE CHAN-FISCHEL (Friends of the Earth): The World Bank is a public institution whose mission is poverty alleviation and sustainable development. HENN: Earlier this year, an independent auditor advised the bank to get out of the oil business completely. Rashad Kaldany is the bank's director of oil and gas projects. Mr. RASHAD KALDANY (World Bank): We see as one of our major roles helping improve transparency, improve governance, in countries. HENN: Kaldany believes only by being involved in oil deals will the bank be in a position to keep corruption at bay and ultimately reduce poverty. The World Bank will unveil new rules governing oil projects in the next couple of months. Right now the oil industry and Wall Street are working overtime to ensure World Bank resources are invested in the oil industry for years to come. In
Fox Report Environmental organizations have launched an ad campaign criticizing one of the Bush administration's environmental policies on air pollution. But opponents say the facts belie the ads, and they accuse the environmentalists of using scare tactics and misleading the public. Fox News correspondent William le Jeunesse reports. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) WILLIAM LA JEUNESSE, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Democrats see the environment as one way to beat President Bush. To do that, some environmental groups are using not ANWAR or endangered species, but mercury contamination. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Mercury is a dangerous poison still being... LA JEUNESSE: TV, newspaper, and magazine ads claim mercury omitted by coal burning
SARA ZDEB, FRIENDS OF THE EARTH: The signs is clear on this issue. Mercury pollution is a serious problem. It's something we believe the public has a right to know about. And frankly, it's something the public should be outraged about when it looks at what the Bush administration is doing. LA JEUNESSE: The science is indeed pretty clear, but it doesn't necessarily support the Green groups claims. DR. JACK SNYDER, NAT'L LIBRARY OF MEDICINE: There are significant misrepresentations of what is available in the way of credible and generally accepted evidence in the scientific and medical literature. LA JEUNESSE: Literature, which questions the link between low levels of mercury and developmental disabilities, as well as the source of most of the mercury in the
ZDEB: It's something that the Bush administration has failed to address in a meaningful way. And as a result, women and children in this country are going to continue to be exposed to unhealthy levels of mercury far into the future. SNYDER: More than 99 percent of the world's mercury is not attributable to that which is emitted from American power plants. LA JEUNESSE: In fact, volcanoes and forest fires produce about 55 percent of the world's mercury, Chinese industry responsible for another 22 percent. American power plants, say studies, emit less than 1 percent. (on camera): The controversy began two days after President Bush won the White House in 2000, when the Clinton EPA proposed reducing mercury emissions from power plants by 90 percent. Now, the Bush White House says it wants to reduce those by about 70 percent with more flexibility to reduce the impact on industry. But to environmentalists, most of whom are Democrats, that isn't good enough. In
Financial Times (
Leading international banks are expected to urge the World Bank to reject proposals to stop financing oil and coal projects in developing countries. Citigroup, ABN Amro, WestLB, Barclays and 16 other banks involved in project finance last year signed the so-called Equator principles - an agreement to adhere to social and environment safeguards of the World Bank group. "It's outrageous that the Equator banks are lobbying against proposals that would make emerging market investments better benefit the poor," said Michelle Chan-Fishel of Friends of the Earth. "We and other NGOs are calling on the Equator banks, particularly Citigroup and the leaders of this initiative, to honour the spirit of the Equator principles and to publicly support the EIR recommendations."
Opponents of genetically altered rice are urging the California Department of Food and Agriculture to reject an emergency proposal to plant the rice, saying it poses a risk to human health and the environment. Five consumer and environmental groups -- Consumers Union, Environment California, Friends of the Earth, Organic Consumers Union and Sierra Club
A full public hearing would allow comment from consumer groups, farmers, scientists, physicians, businesses and environmental groups, they wrote. ''If the crop is grown in the open air, inadvertent and uncontrollable public exposure to the drugs in the rice is likely,'' the letter said. Contact Lisa M. Krieger at lkrieger@mercurynews.com Land Letter Environmentalists and
So, the biggest practical effect of the proposal is that its elimination of the stream buffer prohibition would take away the groups' ability to fight in court against commonly practiced mining techniques. "From day one, industry has resisted obeying the law and the chickens running OSM have failed to muster any guts to force coal companies to follow the law," said Brent Blackwelder, president of Friends of the Earth. "So, there have been dozens of suits." The New York Times African mining companies, governments of developing countries and international banks have expressed concern over a proposal that the World Bank restrict oil and coal projects to protect the environment. "These oil and coal projects are not proven to alleviate poverty," said Jon Sohn, a senior policy analyst for Friends of the Earth in
"There's a misconception or misinformation campaign inside the bank that this is really just about some environmental groups that are trying to push an agenda," Mr. Sohn said. "With people like Desmond Tutu speaking out, they're finding this is a global issue."
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