IF-EYE Newsletter
Issue #34
Thursday, July 03, 2008
A publication of the Bank Information Center
Welcome to the July 3, 2008 issue of the IF-EYE – the Bank Information Center’s synthesis of key developments concerning international financial institutions. This issue spotlights a massive increase in fossil fuel lending by the World Bank and a new book that explains the socio-environmental problems of a major hydroelectric project in Brazil. Please send suggestions, contributions and subscription requests to: info@bicusa.org. Thanks for reading!
In this issue:
1. IFI Updates
2. Civil Society Highlights
3. SPOTLIGHT: World Bank’s lending for fossil fuel skyrockets as it positions itself as the “climate bank”
4. SPOTLIGHT: "Aguas Turvas": new book that explains the never ending socio-environmental problems of the Madeira Complex
5. Announcements and Resources
Europe stays out of bid for top position at IMF’s main policy-setting committee
7/1/2008 International Monetary Fund
For the first time, the Europeans have decided to stay out of the bidding for the chair of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC).
Read more (BIC website)
World Bank continues to push African hydro despite concerns over vulnerability to climate change
6/23/2008 World Bank
World Bank involvement in the proposed Inga and Kafue dams has brought criticism over the continued reliance on hydro in a warming world, and intentions to power foreign mining companies.
Read more (BIC website)
IEG rips World Bank's "Doing Business" report
6/13/2008 World Bank
The World Bank's internal watchdog group, the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG), issued a report on the World Bank's "Doing Business" (DB) publication. The annual report ranks countries on their ease of doing business. Counties become "top reformers" by slashing regulations and rewriting laws in a way that will boost their rankings. The IEG found that the DB survey is biased toward deregulation and hypes its results. It also found that there was "no statistically significant relationship" between the indicators and growth rates.
Report on World Bank Sees Deregulation Bias (Wall Street Journal website)
Doing Business: An Independent Evaluation (IEG website)
World Bank teams with celebrities to save the tiger; India refuses funds
6/12/2008 World Bank
The World Bank’s Tiger Conservation Initiative aims to raise global awareness about the plight of the endangered tiger and to work with local and international communities to stave off its extinction. The initiative is unprecedented for an institution whose stated mission is to fight poverty in developing countries rather than conserve endangered species. But a day after the launch, India is reported for have refused the World Bank’s "offer" for a loan for the initiative.
Read more (BIC website)
IFC touts achievements during Palestine Investment Conference, while World Bank-led reforms threaten Palestine’s poorest
6/15/2008 International Finance Corporation, World Bank
The recent Palestine Investment Conference concluded with pledges amounting to $1.4 billion in private sector investment in the Palestinian Territories, including $75m from the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Meanwhile, the World Bank’s conditionalities on utility fees and eliminating public sector jobs raises doubts about the institution’s adherence to its poverty reduction mandate.
Read more (BIC website)
Kazakhstan signs BTC agreement into law, plans new pipelines
6/10/2008 Republic of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan has signed into law a 2006 agreement to transport oil through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, while making plans to connect its oil to the BTC route through additional domestic and trans-Caspian pipelines.
Read more (BIC website)
EBRD focuses its Russian lending on infrastructure
6/9/2008 European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will earmark 40% of its Russian lending to infrastructure.
Read more (BIC website)
Civil society groups propose change in annual IDB-civil society meeting
7/3/2008 Multiple organizations
A letter sent to Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) President Moreno lays out a series of arguments suggesting greater control by civil society organizations in a change that would mark a dramatic shift in the Bank designed meetings of the past.
Read more (BIC website)
Jubilee Act passes U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee
6/25/2008 Jubilee USA Network
On June 24, 2008, the Jubilee Act passed the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The bill must now be considered and passed by the full U.S. Senate before it can go to the President and be signed into law.
Read more (BIC website)
BIC’s MENA program organizes third workshop in Egypt
6/20/2008 Bank Information Center
The workshop introduced BIC’s work to Egyptian media and civil society organizations, and focused on the activities of the international financial institutions in the country.
Read more (BIC website)
World Bank and ADB cautioned against increasing engagement with Burma’s military regime
6/19/2008 Ethnic Community Development Forum (ECDF) of Burma
In a Statement issued June 17, the Ethnic Community Development Forum (ECDF) of Burma cautioned the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) against any engagement with Burma’s military rulers in the post-Cyclone Nargis scenario given the human rights situation in the country.
Read more (BIC website)
Civil society groups call for real solutions to the global food crisis
6/3/2008 Multiple organizations
On June 3rd, 237 major NGOs, farmer organizations, trade unions and social movements from nearly 50 countries delivered a strong snub to WTO Director-General, Pascal Lamy, in his push to conclude the Doha Round as a solution to the global food crisis.
Read the sign on letter and press release (Oakland Institute website)
7/3/2008 by Heike Mainhardt-Gibbs, Bank Information Center
New statistics developed by the Bank Information Center show that the World Bank Group’s private sector arm, the International Financial Corporation (IFC), increased its lending for fossil fuel projects by a staggering 165% in FY2008. Taken as a whole, the World Bank Group increased its fossil-fuel lending by 60% in the same period.
“While the World Bank appears to have slowed down lending for fossil fuels, at least in FY08, the IFC has shot way up,” said Heike Mainhardt-Gibbs, a consultant with BIC who generated the statistics. “Not only did the IFC increase its lending for oil and gas, but in 2007 and 2008 huge investments have been made in coal.”
Total World Bank Group financing for fossil fuel projects is estimated to have been nearly US$2.3 billion in 2008. Of this, IFC projects accounted for approximately US$2.2 billion. Included in IFC’s fossil-fuel investments are two large coal power plant projects, totaling US$750 million – the controversial Tata Ultra Mega project in Gujarat, India (4,000 megawatts), and the Calaca Power project in the Philippines. These two projects alone account for 33% of total World Bank Group fossil-fuel financing for the year.
Ironically, as the Bank positions itself as the “climate bank” the data show that the World Bank, and increasingly its private sector arm, continues to fund, and has in fact significantly increased it’s investment in large-scale, polluting, carbon-intensive projects.
Read more (BIC website)
World Bank GROUP extractive industry and Fossil-fueL financing statistics, FY05-08
World Bank Group financing for fossil fuel-based development FY05-FY08 and renewable energy FY07-FY08 Bank Information Center, July 23, 2008 (Acrobat pdf, 74 KB)
For more information:
Please contact Heike Mainhardt-Gibbs at: Hmainhardt@bicusa.org
6/23/2008 Bank Information Center, International Rivers, Friends of the Earth-Amazonia
A major new book, jointly published by the Bank Information Center, International Rivers and other partners, aims to explain the contradictions of the Hydroelectric Complex and the hydroways of the Madeira River. "Aguas Turvas" will serve as a tool for those that seek to understand the history of the project and its implications for the Amazon region.
The mega hydroelectric dams planned to be constructed in the Madeira River, San Antonio and Jirau were promoted by the government as the only solution to restrain energy rationing starting in 2012. As part of the main portfolio of projects of the Growth Acceleration Plan (PAC), the bidding process of the hydroelectric dams was done under pressure, justified by the priority given to growth in energy demand, regardless of the costs.
The book “Águas Turvas: alertas sobre as conseqüências de barrar o maior afluente do Amazonas" (“Muddy Waters: alerts on the consequences of damming the biggest tributary of the Amazon”), explains the contradictions of the Hydroelectric Complex and the hydroways of the Madeira River and the questions that still don’t have an answer with regards to its socio-environmental feasibility, in a situation in which the companies are waiting to receive the permits to initiate the construction in July of this year. The objective of Aguas Turvas is to serve as a tool for those that seek to understand the history of the project and its implications for the Amazon region.
Read more (BIC website)
BIC’s new handbook for advocacy on extractive industry revenues
7/1/2008 Bank Information Center
Bank Information Center has recently released it’s new "Handbook for Advocacy on Extractive Industry Revenues: Good Practices and the IMF’s Guide on Resource Revenue Transparency." This Handbook is a user’s guide to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) “Guide on Resource Revenue Transparency.” The Handbook is intended as a tool for civil society organizations, journalists and other members of the public interested in learning more about transparency and fiscal management in the natural resource sectors.
Read more (BIC website)
Three new civil society analysis of climate change and the multilateral development banks
World Bank has yet to prove it's an environment bank
6/23/2008 WWF-UK
The World Bank needs to fundamentally change its current funding priorities and set ambitious and measurable targets to 'decarbonise' its energy investment portfolio, if it is to live up to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown's vision of it as "the environment bank". However, new research by WWF-UK, shows that because of its continued funding of fossil fuel projects, the World Bank has in the last decade financed over 26 gigatonnes of CO2 emissions. This is approximately 45 times the current annual CO2 emissions of the UK. World Bank financing of oil and gas alone in the last three years amounted to over US$3 billion.
The World Bank and its carbon footprint: Why the World Bank is still far from being an environment bank (WWF-UK website)
Correcting the World's Greatest Market Failure: Climate Change and the Multilateral Development Banks
June, 2008 World Resources Institute
Correcting the World’s Greatest Market Failure: Climate Change at the Multilateral Development Banks is a new analysis by the World Resources Institute that examines the challenges of mainstreaming climate change at the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs). The review looks at Country Strategies and project documentation for the energy sector portfolios of the World Bank Group, the Asia Development Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank.
Correcting the World's Greatest Market Failure: Climate Change and the Multilateral Development Banks (World Resources Institute website)
World Bank’s Climate Funds Proposal Distorts UNFCCC Principles
5/28/2008 Third World Network
The World Bank’s revised climate investment funds (CIF) proposals reflect a poor understanding of the international climate change regime and remains inconsistent with the principles of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) despite claims to the contrary.
Read more (Third World Network website)
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