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Join us at Climate Camp: 21st-24th August
Following years of campaigning by the People & Planet network, Camp for Climate Action is heading to Edinburgh this year to target the Royal Bank of Scotland.
People & Planet students will be there, taking action to stop RBS financing climate chaos.
Join the Facebook group to find out more and get involved.
Main News Stories
NUS commits to cleaner, greener banking with move to ethical Co-operative Bank
People & Planet welcomes NUS' commitment to move to a cleaner, greener bank after years of joint campaigning to stop RBS investing in fossil fuels.
Are UK unis in transition yet? People & Planet's Green League 2010 reveals all today
Will heading off to uni in September increase or decrease your carbon footprint? People & Planet's Green League 2010, published this week, reveals that your choice of uni could make all the difference!
Will Vince Cable clean up RBS for good?
Could the new Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills help stop banks like RBS funding climate chaos with public money?
RBS AGM surrounded by Public Shareholder protesters
Protesters around the UK besieged RBS yesterday on the day of its AGM calling for an end to financial backing for fossil fuels driving climate change
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, coal 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 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.
