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.
Edinburgh P&P protest against ‘The Oil Bank of Scotland’ as the bank tries to sign up freshers
Image © nusonline.co.uk
People & Planet welcomes the National Union of Students (NUS)’ commitment to move its bank accounts from Natwest (owned by the UK’s dirtiest bank, Royal Bank of Scotland) to the Co-operative Bank. The NUS and People & Planet have previously engaged directly with RBS together and pressed RBS-Natwest to stop investing in the fossil fuel companies and projects responsible for driving climate change and human rights abuses.
Louise Hazan, People & Planet’s Climate Campaigner, commented:
“We are delighted at the news that the National Union of Students is moving away from the UK’s dirtiest bank. It is an important step that reflects growing student and public outrage at RBS’ misuse of taxpayers and customers money in backing some of the most destructive projects in the world. We hope the NUS’s actions will be echoed by dozens more student unions in the coming year.”
RBS-Natwest, which was bailed out with billions from the taxpayer in 2008, has a large student client base and depends heavily on recruiting university graduates. However, student organisation People & Planet has led a growing campaign against RBS’ carbon-intensive investments, especially in areas such as Canadian tar sands and oil extraction on the Congo-Ugandan border.
Other recent successes include high profile stunts throughout the UK during the RBS Week of Action, the banning of RBS branches from York and Edinburgh University campuses and protests at the RBS AGM in Edinburgh in April 2010. The Camp for Climate Action also recently announced it would be targetting RBS this summer.
Incoming NUS President, Aaron Porter, added
“The recent international banking crisis has once again highlighted the need for financial sustainability and corporate responsibility. NUS has a long and proud history of fighting to make the lives of students better in their educational experiences, but also in the world around them. I am proud that one of my first acts as NUS President will be to oversee our move to bank with the Co-operative.
“The principles of the co-operative movement are values I support, and I look forward to furthering these in the student movement during my time as President.”
Susan Nash, NUS’s Vice-President for Society & Citizenship, added:
As an active partner in the fight against climate change, NUS supports the Ditch Dirty Development campaign and will continue to highlight to our members the importance of choosing an ethical bank”
In 2008, NUS and People & Planet jointly voiced their opposition to RBS’ fossil fuel investments in a meeting with former RBS Chairman Sir Tim McKillop demanding that it:
- Calculate and publish the embedded emissions resulting from loans to oil and gas projects
- Cap embedded emissions and set annual targets for reductions
- Commit to a complete transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy lending
- Establish ‘no-go’ areas for lending; immediately halt loans to unconventional fossil fuels (eg coal and tar sands) which affect sensitive ecosystems such as rainforests.
Despite now being 84% owned by the taxpayer and mounting public pressure for RBS to clean up its act, these demands have not yet been met and RBS remains the UK’s largest financial backer of tar sands.
