World Bank Extractive Industries Review (EIR) Nears Completion: Counter Industry's Influence Now

URGENT ACTION ALERT
>
> World Bank Extractive Industries Review (EIR) Nears Completion
> Counter Industry's Influence Now!
>
> Industry is flooding the EIR Secretariat with fake "community" requests
> for more World Bank support for coal and oil. Please write Emil Salim,
> head of the EIR, NOW at or esalim@eireview.org and
> tell him you demand that the EIR resist industry pressure. Be sure to
> include your name, organization, and or community so the EIR can tell
> that you are a real stakeholder. Please blind-copy seen@seen.org.
>
> The World Bank's Extractive Industries Review (EIR) is almost done. By
> mid-October, the EIR will produce a final version of its report on the
> poverty, and other social and environmental impacts associated with oil,
> gas, and mining projects. While the report will not be presented to
> World Bank President James Wolfensohn until December, the time to take
> action on this is now. So far, the report, despite massive problems,
> contains some strikingly strong recommendations. Over the next few weeks,
> the trick will be to keep them in, build further on them, and keep the
> bad things out.
>
> It is imperative that the EIR Secretariat and Emil Salim hear from NGOs
> and communities now in order to insure that the report contains the
> strongest and most objective recommendations possible.
>
> The report currently includes language that calls for:
>
> -An immediate phaseout of World Bank support for coal projects;
> -Full and generous support for impacted workers and communities
> through "just transition" funds;
> -A phaseout of Bank support for oil projects (text recommends the
> Bank should focus on gas, and leave "oil exploration and oil
> transport to the private sector")
> -A reversal of "the lending ratio between fossil fuels and
> renewables, efficiency, and conservation as soon as practicable"
> -prior informed consent for indigenous peoples
> -an end to World Bank support for mines utilizing submarine tailings
> disposal and other environmentally destructive technologies.
> -a recognition of and end to the negative social and environmental
> impacts of "structural adjustment loans".
>
> All of this language needs to stay in the report. The final report should
> also include strong language on "no-go zones" that would prohibit Bank
> extractive projects in areas of poor governance, high conflict, human
> rights abuses, and environmental sensitivity.
>
> Write a brief note, in your own words say why you think the World Bank
> should be out of the business of supporting oil, gas, and mining projects
> - and reference the need for the points above to stay in the report.
>
> Thanks for your urgent attention to this.
> _____________________
> Steve Kretzmann
> Sustainable Energy & Economy Network
> Institute for Policy Studies
> www.seen.org