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Major Banks Criticised for Supporting Caspian Pipeline Project Environment and human rights groups, working together under the newly established BankTrack umbrella [1], today expressed strong dissatisfaction with the decision of nine major banks to support the controversial Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, in spite of their commitment to the Equator Principles. Their reaction came with the signing of the pipeline financial package today in Baku. The pipeline has been heavily criticised for causing environmental damage and undermining human rights, as well as destabilising the conflict-prone region. Of the fifteen participating banks, nine [2] last year signed up to the Equator Principles, a set of voluntary environmental and social guidelines on project finance. Campaigners say the Principles should have excluded loans to the Caspian pipeline. Greg Muttitt, of environment group PLATFORM, commented “Our research shows that the BTC pipeline breaks the Equator Principles on numerous counts, and people and the environment will be worse off as a result. The fact that this deal nevertheless went through makes it hard to see the Banks’ commitment to the Equator Principles as any more than lip service to responsible lending”. Michelle Chan of Friends of the Earth US added “our organisations last year cautiously welcomed the Equator Principles as a first step towards environmentally and socially sound banking. However, since then we have seen already several occasions where these banks continued to finance controversial projects with vast consequences for the environment, BTC being only the last of them. The very credibility of the Equator Principles is at stake here”. Jules Peck of WWF-UK; “Signing on to the Equator Principles must signify an end to banking as usual, reflected in a change in their portfolio and lending practices. EP banks better invest in, and capitalise on the good will created by the EPs. Whatever they stand to gain from signing on to a controversial project as BTC will be insignificant compared to this future asset. For more details See also websites www.baku.org.uk and www.banktrack.org Note for editors: 1: on Friday January 23rd, BankTrack, a network of NGOs monitoring activities of private financiers, presented ‘No U turn allowed’, a set of recommendations to Equator banks at the Public Eye on Davos conference. The paper calls for a deeper commitment, wider scope and proper implementation of the Principles. More information on www.banktrack.org and www.evb.ch 2: The nine banks (which include three lead arrangers on the deal) are: Citigroup of the USA (lead arranger), Mizuho of Japan (lead arranger), ABN Amro (lead arranger) and ING of the Netherlands, Royal Bank of Scotland, Belgian banks Dexia and KBC, and Germany’s West LB and HVB.
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