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Aim: deliver over 20,000 cards to the Treasury by April 2010 asking them to clean up RBS
RBS action days
RBS-NatWest is Europe’s dirtiest bank. The Government is allowing them to use billions of bail-out money to finance the projects and companies driving climate change and human rights abuses around the world.
8-14 February is Go Green Week. Groups up and down the country will be organising an RBS action day. Organise a day to get your Treasury action cards signed and return them to the People & Planet office by the end of February.
Together we’ll make sure the Treasury knows its time to clean up its act. and ensure RBS is financing a low-carbon future. For more info, contact adam.ramsay@peopleandplanet.org
Main News Stories
RBS lead near billion pound deal for Uganda war zone oil company
Bailed out Royal Bank of Scotland act as joint coordinators of a £925 million deal linked to a controversial project on the resource-war struck Uganda-Congo border - project alleged to have led to an escalation of violence, with oil companies accused of equipping troops, and allegations of corruption.
Students launch new legal action over latest RBS bail out
Students serve the Treasury with new legal papers today. Last November's £25 billion cash injection is deemed 'unlawful' by campaigners and the Treasury's intervention in bankers' bonuses only strengthens case.
Groups plan RBS action days
Groups up and down the country are planning RBS action days as part of Go Green Week 2010.
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The Government's department of Energy and Climate Change have just launched a survey to ask you how they can best listen to the views and ideas of young people on the issue of climate change.
RBS Profit Playground in Yorkshire
Students from across Yorkshire came together to mock RBS' obsession with fossil fuels, and call on them to fund the switch to a low carbon economy: watch the new video now.
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Facts behind the climate finance figures at Copenhagen revealed
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Blame Canada - Fossil of the Day at Copenhagen
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Campaign Summary
Climate change is perhaps the most serious threat we face. If we are going to cut our carbon emissions we must stop extracting fossil fuels and start developing renewable energy.
Fossil fuel extraction doesn’t happen without funding. Likewise, the switch to a low carbon economy won’t happen unless there’s serious cash behind it.
Almost everyone now agrees that action on climate change is urgently needed. But funding for fossil fuels is still far greater than investment in renewable energy. Loans to oil and gas projects that run for decades will guarantee massive future emissions. Loans for renewables could secure us a safe energy future. To avoid devastating climate change we must stop funding fossil fuel extraction and start investing in renewable energy.
Download our latest report - Towards a Royal Bank of Sustainability
Campaign Strategy
The Ditch Dirty Development campaign aims to shift financial support away from fossil fuel extraction and exploration towards renewable energy. We are working with the World Development Movement (WDM) and Platform to deliver this.
Since the credit crunch, the lines between banks and the government have become blurred. That’s why we have two main targets.
Target 1: The Royal Bank of Scotland
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which owns NatWest, is one of the biggest companies in the world and the UK’s most polluting bank. It is one of the major funders of fossil fuels, and invests in some of the most controversial projects. In 2006 its investments were responsible for more emissions than the whole of Scotland.
As a major UK financial body RBS has influence within the sector. They should be showing the way to a low carbon future. Instead they are leading us to climate catastrophe.
Target 2: The Treasury
Last year the Treasury pumped billions of pounds of public money into RBS to stop them going bankrupt. We now own 84% of the bank yet the Treasury have failed to do anything to stop RBS’s most destructive investments.
The Treasury claim to be concerned about climate change. They could be using RBS to fund the switch to green energy we desperately need. Instead they are allowing RBS to invest public money in the very projects which are endangering our future.
The bail-out has given us a huge opportunity. We, the people of Britain, now own one of the biggest banks in the world. We have the chance to use RBS to fund the transition to a low-carbon economy that we urgently need. Instead, the Treasury is allowing RBS to gamble with our future. Join the campaign to green RBS, and help stop climate chaos.
