June 19, 2012
RIO DE JANEIRO, June
19, 2012. Rights for Sustainability activists held a protest
rally against the World Bank's green economy agenda in the
Rio+20 at downtown Rio in front of Caixa,
the WB's partner in Brazil.
Around 100 people
from the R4S delegation, International Women’s Alliance,
Kalikasan, Solidaridad, People's Movement on Climate Change,
Indigenous People's Movement for Self Determination and
Liberation, Cordillera People's Alliance, Asia Pacific
Indigenous Youth Network, and Public Services International
denounced the World Bank's sins against the environment and the
people and to reject its corporate greed agenda.
R4S activist Maria
Theresa Lauron of IBON International says that "the World Bank
has a very long history of plundering our nations and our
people."
The World Bank has
been known to implement anti-people globalization policies
through structural adjustments programs (SAPs) that come with
the loans they give to poor nations. These SAPs involve the
opening up of the local markets to foreign investments and
privation of public services such as water and energy.
The WB is also
notorious for globalizing pollution, destruction, and human
rights violations. It subsidizes coal fired powerplants,
incinerators, large dams, and mining all over the world. These
WB projects has pushed people deeper into poverty, destroyed the
lives and livelihood of communities and removed indigenous
peoples from their ancestral territories. They have polluted
land, air, and water, causing various health problems.
Examples of these
projects are the Omai Gold Mine in Guyana which dumped tons of
mine tailings into Guyana's largest river; the Bujagali
Hydropower Project in Uganda which threatens the livelihood of
7000 people and productive agricultural lands; the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline which fuelled social strife and
enriched only a few multinational corporations; and the Kedung
Ombo dam in Indonesia which evicted around 24,000 people from
their communities.
Lauron warned that
"under the green economy being promoted in the Rio+20, the World
Bank, in collusion with governments and corporations, will put a
price tag on nature, a price tag on life."
The World Banks'
green economy agenda will promote destructive false solutions
such as REDD, subsidies for 'clean coal' power plants, and more
dams under the clean development mechanism.
"We must not let this
happen. We must mobilize and resist against the World Bank's
corporate agenda. Junk green economy!" ended Lauron.###
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