africa/global: BUSINESS BREAKS PROMISE TO CLEAN-UP ACT

Web version:
http://www.foe.co.uk/pubsinfo/infoteam/pressrel/2003/20030117100025.html

Immediate release: Friday 17th January
BUSINESS BREAKS PROMISE TO CLEAN-UP ACT
Multinationals to share fondue with w orld leaders at World
Economic Forum in Davos

Business leaders, politicians and the rich converge on the Swiss
ski resort of Davos next week (23 January) for the World Economic
Forum (WEF) - the annual gathering of the powerful which plays an
important role in discussions of world economic and social policy.

But the meeting takes place amidst growing criticism of corporate
greenwash. Despite a high profile pledge made a year ago at the
WEF in New York, WEF corporations have already demonstrated their
unwillingness to embrace sustainability if it gets in the way of
more profits. Friends of the Earth is highlighting cases of bad
practices in the year since WEF 2002 [1].

The international environmental network will call on world leaders
attending the WEF to act to establish rules for big business and
rights for citizens affected by bad business practice, rather than
accept more greenwash promises. Friends of the Earth and a
coalition of organisations is holding a counter-conference called
the Public Eye on Davos, which will cast a critical eye on the WEF
agenda [2].

Last year the WEF moved abruptly to New York - reportedly because
of security concerns in the Alpine location. The Swiss government
has attracted the Forum back to Davos, but security is expected to
be intense. In previous years, attendees have been enclosed in a
ring of steel, with all access to Davos cut off. This year for
the first time in Swiss history airspace is to be closed over
Davos during the WEF and the Swiss military will be there in
force. But following criticism of the unsubtle clampdown on
protests in 2001, there is a permitted public protest expected on
Saturday 25th January.

Friends of the Earth will be seeking out politicians at the WEF to
ask them for new international commitments on rights for citizens
and communities to protect them from bad practices.

The invited " community of top decision makers " - including
senior business leaders from corporations such as Nestle; Shell,
Vivendi Universal, British American Tobacco, BP, Nike and Tyumen
Oil (involved in the Prestige disaster) - will benefit from " a
unique club atmosphere " [3] to talk to world leaders about the
way forward for the world.

Previous WEF meetings have paved the way for the creation of the
World Trade Organisation (WTO) and North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) - both of which have been severely criticised
for contributing to global inequality through their damaging
impacts on poor communities.

While the WEF guests hold private discussions, representatives
from non-governmental organisations, including Friends of the
Earth International, and representatives from developing and
developed countries will present an alternative vision in a public
forum, just a few blocks away. The Public Eye on Davos
International Conference takes place from Thursday 23rd January
until Monday 27th January - with all sessions open to the public
and the press.

The WEF, which is funded by contributions from the world's
foremost 1000 companies, used its 2002 appearance in New York to
exploit the memory of the September 11 tragedy while promoting its
usual agenda: that the "alliance between the world's largest
trading partners today is more important than ever". It called
for an end to political posturing and regulatory divergence, which
stand as a barrier to free trade [4].

Friends of the Earth challenged the corporations at last year's
Forum to support civil society calls for binding international
rules on multinationals under the UN. The issue was a major
feature of the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable
Development in August 2002. Friends of the Earth wrote to all the
chief executives at the Forum and will reveal their responses
during this year's event.

Tony Juniper, vice chair of Friends of the Earth International,
said:

"The World Economic Forum's slogan this year is ' Building Trust'
yet many of its participants are chief executives of the companies
responsible for the very worst ravages of corporate globalisation.
It is a bitter irony that many people cannot swallow. How can
Galician fisherfolk trust the corporations wh ich participate
in the WEF that have damaged their environment and livelihoods?

"If politicians at the World Economic Forum are serious about
improving the state of the world, they should accept Friends of
the Earth International's challenge and support a global regime to
curb corporate power, with guaranteed rights for citizens and
communities, and protection for the environment where we all
live. We will also ask politicians to call the bluff on corporate
greenwash."

Friends of the Earth International will have spokespeople
available in Davos throughout the meeting.

Updates will also be available at
www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/corporates/

ends

NOTES:
[1] Last year WEF leaders made a high profile statement on
corporate social responsibility. For example, Taizo Nishimuro,
Chairman of the Board or Toshiba Corporation, Japan said: We are
moving towards global environmental standards and we have to be
responsible as we help governments establish those standards ,
(see:
http://www.weforum.org/site/knowledgenavigator.nsf/Content/Fro
m%20Business%20Leaders%20to%20Global%20Leaders?opentopic_id=200
115000theme_id=200)

Examples of WEF corporations not acting in the interests of
sustainable development since these statements were made in the
last year include:

WestLB [WEF member ]
The German bank Westdeutsche Landesbank (WestLB) is leading a
group of international banks providing $900m million to construct
of a new crude oil pipeline across the Ecuadorian Mindo-Nambillo
cloudforest. The project is expected to result in irreversible
damage to large areas of pristine tropical rainforest full of
endangered species. The indigenous population (who have been
excluded from decision making over the pipeline) fear for their
future as their local culture, social networks and communities are
threatened. Protests have been met with gunfire and people shot
dead during demonstrations. WestLB argued the project would match
the World Bank's environmental principles. When independent
studies revealed the contrary, the World Bank publicly expressed
serious doubts about the pipeline project. Disregarding such
concerns, the pipeline ploughed through the rainforests of Ecuador
last year.

Alfa Group [includes Tyumen Oil a WEF member and Crown
Resources]
Mikhail Fridman, head of the group that owns Crown Resources and
Tyumen Oil, attended last year's WEF. The oil that spilt off the
Galician coast was from an ageing tanker chartered by wholly-owned
subsidiary Crown Resources. Representatives from Alfa companies
are expected at this year's WEF. Crown Resources operates under a
Swiss flag of convenience (it is listed as a company in Zug)
although its directors are mostly British and Russian and its
largest office is in London. The company chartered the Prestige
to carry Tyumen's oil from St Petersburg to the Far East and the
wreck of the Prestige which subsequently sunk continues to leak
oil from the seabed off Galicia today. The corporation has been
criticised for continuing to charter rustbuckets to carry
dangerous cargoes around the World despite the history of major
oil spill incidents such as TotalFinaElf's Erika spill of 1999.

BP [WEF member]
In 2002 BP pressed ahead with its plans to build a pipeline from
the Caspian Sea in the East to the Mediterranean in the West.
Every year it will transport oil equivalent to nearly a third of
the UK's yearly carbon dioxide output. BP has signed so called
host government agreements with Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey
which make it exempt from laws, including environmental and
labour, that may affect the profitability of the pipeline. The
needs of BP, such as its demand for water, will be put above those
of local communities.

Nestle [WEF member]
At the end of 2002 Nestle was exposed for demanding $6m in
compensation from the famine struck Ethiopian government. The
compensation was for the nationalisation of a subsidiary company
many years before under a previous Ethiopian government. Following
media attention Nestle has made it clear that it will still demand
the compensation, but redirect it towards famine relief in the
country. Furthermore Nestle threatened that the failure of
Ethiopia to pay up over this issue would be looked on badly by
multinationals who may hold back from future investment.

Shell [WEF member]
Shell's South Durban refinery was established under South Africa's
apartheid regime and is sited directly next to poor black
communities. Shell has allowed the refinery to deteriorate and it
has been at the centre of 23 serious pollution incidents and
operation problems since 1998. The most serious being when a
Shell fuel pipeline leaked more than a million litres of petrol
below people's residential homes. In 2002 faced with the threat
of a legal challenge by the local authority, Shell broke off all
dialogue with officials and lobbied Durban's mayor, who then
called for the reconsideration of legal action. Shell has,
through its first public environmental report for their refinery
in 2002, misinformed the public of the historical pollution. By
using apartheid law still in operation, Shell refuses the local
community access to information.

Petronas [WEF member]
The Burmese military government has been at the heart of human
rights controversy for many years. The Burmese Democracy Movement
has called for multinationals to stop operating in Burma because
they fear resulting profits help keep the military in power as
well as lending the regime credibility. This year Petronas took
over Premier Oil's entire Burmese operation when the company was
split up. The UK Government had asked Premier to pull out of
Burma. Petronas has given no indication of its intention to do
so.

[2] http://www.evb.ch/index.cfm?page_id=1772archive=none
[3] World Economic Forum on-line - www.weforum.com
[4] "Charting a new course for transatlantic relations"
www.weforum.com

$$

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