Key Findings
1. The EBRD is a significant contributor to climate change.
The EBRD has financed fossil fuel projects, beginning at its inception
in 1991, and continuing through Dec. 31, 1996, which will, over their
lifetimes, release a total of 6.548 billion tons of carbon dioxide--or
1.78 billion tons of carbon--into the Earth's atmosphere. This quantity
of carbon is equivalent to approximately 29 percent of all fossil fuel
emissions generated by all of the world's countries in 1995.1
2. The EBRD is investing in new reserves in remote regions plagued by environmental risks of the highest order while not ensuring that strong environmental mitigation strategies nor accountability mechanisms are in place.
Among the stated goals of the EBRD is "to promote in the full range
of its activities environmentally sound and sustainable development.
"2 In keeping with this, the EBRD has proven
to be a leader in energy efficiency among the multilateral development
banks in Central Europe. Nevertheless, this positive step is countervailed
by the role the EBRD is playing in helping to finance oil and gas projects,
such as those off of Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East--an area
prone to severe earthquakes, potential ice sheers, typhoons, and tsunamis--where
a devastating oil spill is likely. The EBRD also helped finance an oil
development project which spilled more oil than the entire Exxon Valdez
oil spill.
3. The EBRD is helping some of the richest multinational corporations on the planet gain access to vast oil and gas fields of the former Soviet Union.
The EBRD is a publicly-funded institution, whose primary mission is
"to foster the transition towards open market-oriented economies and
to promote private and entrepreneurial initiative in the central and
eastern European countries." Yet, in many cases, the end result is favorable
access to oil and gas fields, thanks to EBRD involvement, by some of
the richest corporations on the planet. Transnationals who have joined
in public/private partnership with the EBRD include: Shell, Mitsubishi,
Amoco, Texaco, Enron, and Conoco. The EBRD, together with the World
Bank, is also focused on leveraging foreign direct investment in the
former Soviet bloc countries. Net flows into the region have surged
over the past two years and are expected to top $55 billion in 19973.
4. The EBRD is ensuring a steady flow of oil and gas to Western Europe and Japan, while making oil and gas less accessible to many people in Eastern Europe, destroying indigenous cultures, and laying waste to some the last pristine areas on the planet.
Since the EBRD began operations in the former Soviet Union in 1991,
and despite the former Soviet bloc's abundant supply of fossil fuels,
consumers are finding oil less available in many regions, more expensive,
and regional shortages more commonplace. Meanwhile, oil exports--primarily
to western Europe and Japan -- have increased by over 50 percent, from
50 to 60 million tons per year to 90 million tons.4
In remote oil- and gas-rich regions, local populations suffer through
freezing winters with little or no gas to keep them warm. Meanwhile,
the indigenous peoples of the former Soviet Union--and the once pristine
environments they inhabited for generations--are rapidly being destroyed
by industrialization and environmental destruction introduced by wealthy
oil and gas companies.
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