From Credit Crunch to Climate Crunch
London People & Planet and Platform activists paid a visit to one of RBS's recruitment fairs today, with jobless bankers and homeless polar bears highlighting the risks of a future climate crunch if RBS continues irresponsible lending to fossil fuels.
This homeless polar bear is a victim of the ‘climate crunch’
A future banker sacked for his role in bringing about the ‘climate crunch’
Taking the opportunity to get the message across to queueing graduates
Protest at RBS’ investments in unsustainable futures
Media and communications volunteer, and member of Westminster Uni P&P, Amani Ashraf, reports:
We were disguised as students eager to get employed by different recruiters. As we were about to reach the frontline of the RBS stall we were stopped by a security guard saying “I know what you’re up to, I have seen the polar bear costume” and requesting us to do our protesting outside the building. The first thing that came to our mind was ‘How did he know?’
The surprise didn’t finish, they actually had arranged a little area surrounded by fences just for us to do the protest in - but as it was right next to the queue of graduates waiting to get into the fair, this didn’t stop us getting a wide ranging audience to be more aware of RBS’ investment in fossil fuels. It was easier to interact with people since they didn’t have any other distractions.
We had guest visitors like the homeless polar bear and the jobless banker both highlighting the banks lending to coal, oil and gas. The emissions resulting from RBS-NatWest’s lending to oil and gas projects reached 36.9 million tonnes of carbon in 2005 — equivalent to one quarter of UK households and almost as much as the entire emissions output of Scotland itself. In 2007 and 2008, RBS-NatWest loaned an estimated $16 billion in 27 different loans to coal-related companies around the world. These included RBS taking part in massive loans worth $70 billion to E.ON, the controversial energy giant attempting to build the first coal-fired power station in this country in 34 years.
In the same week that the government announced a bail-out for banks and the UK’s Climate Change Committee recommended that we should phase out the use of fossil fuels for power generation in the next 20 years, students are calling on RBS to stop irresponsible loans to fossil fuels. Current financial turmoil has highlighted the dangers of not tackling risks such as climate change early enough, according to Lord Stern, author of the government’s 2006 report on the economics of climate change. The answer, for both the climate and the economy, could lie in increasing investment in renewable and other low carbon industries. Students across the country are calling for RBS-NatWest to do just that.
Kevin Smith, finance and climate campaigner at Platform said:
Nature doesn’t do bail-outs. This is a lesson we will learn the hard way if RBS keeps pumping billions of pounds into fossil fuel projects pumping out millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide all over the world. For years RBS has been using people’s savings to bankroll new coal and oil, now they are using taxpayers’ money to do it too.
- Find out more about the Ditch Dirty Development campaign, how RBS-NatWest funds climate change and how you can email RBS-NatWest to tell them to stop it.