The activity took place the day before October 8th, scheduled by social movements and organizations from different parts of the world to demand: “World Bank out of Climate”. The demonstration was also the closure of a workshop on climate finance carried out in Sao Pablo by many organizations and was one of the first mobilizations in the framework of the “Global Week of Action Against Debt and International Financial Institutions (IFIs)” which is taking place from October 7-17.

The letter submitted by social organizations to the World Bank makes reference to the document “World Bank out of Climate”, written by Jubilee South Americas, Friends of the Earth Latin America and the Caribbean, the Andean Coordination of Indigenous Organizations, the Hemispheric Social Alliance and the Ecological Debt Creditors Alliance, and signed by tens of other networks.

The organizations explain that the World Bank has found in the confluence of the economic, food, energy and climate crises and the crisis of the extractivist model a new discourse and resources to consolidate itself as “champion of the transition to a greener capitalism”.

The organizations consider that the answers promoted by the centers of power are false solutions that ignore the causes of the climate crisis, and contribute instead to worsening it and increase the climate debt of the Northern countries, transnational corporations and IFIs. “They see climate change as a chance to overcome the economic crisis, strengthen capitalism and continue profiting”, they state.

Among the false solutions, the movements and organizations which signed the document highlight carbon market, hydropower, nuclear energy and agrofuels. “The creation of the carbon market opened the door for the IFIs, particularly the World Bank, to expand their role and strengthen their capacity to intervene and condition borrowing countries”, they explain. In addition, they make reference to the several projects associated to carbon market and the special funds of the World Bank for this business.

Initiatives in the framework of the Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM) or Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) “allow the North and their transnationals to fictitiously offset some of their greenhouse gas emissions by funding projects in the South that theoretically reduce emissions”, reads the statement. “These projects increase illegitimate financial debt as well as ecological and social debt”, they add.

In the current climate negotiations, the Northern countries aim to strengthen the role of the World Bank. Meanwhile, “the World Bank continues to finance a development model that contributes to global warming, including heavy investment in fossil fuels and agribusiness”, highlight the organizations. According to this document, between 1992 and 2004 the World Bank approved more than US$ 11 billion in loans to more than 120 fossil fuel projects, representing 20% of current global emissions.

Also, in 2007 and 2008, the World Bank funded an additional $ 7.3 billion in fossil fuel projects. The contradictions in their rhetoric against climate change are clear.

The social movements and organizations point out that the “Peoples´ Agreement” developed in the Climate Change Summit in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in April, 2010, states that a minimum 6% of Gross World Product is required to cover climate financing needs.

“This financing must be public, new, additional, non-debt generating, eliminate the carbon market and without any role for the World Bank or regional development banks” they conclude.

Photo: Jubilee South Americas