Blogposts tagged 'World Bank'

A new report on the costs of adapting to climate change is a wake-up call to the rich world

There's a curious irony at the heart of climate change. We, that is, the rich countries, have largely caused the problem. But we aren't the one who are going to suffer the most because of it.

In fact, one of the main reasons we are as rich as we are is because we have burnt the most fossil fuels. Britain, for example, was the home of the largely-coal-powered Industrial revolution, and because we got an early lead on burning coal, we are not only relatively well off, we also lead the world in historical emissions. In total, throughout history, the British have emitted more carbon per head of population than anyone else.

There have been some great developments around our Congo rainforest campaign, as the FT reported on its website this morning that one of the arms of the World Bank will offload the shares it owns in a company known to be destroying the forest of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has announced that it will divest its holdings in Olam International, a Singapore-based company which has operations in the DRC. The Congo report we released earlier this year showed how Olam was holding forest land granted in breach of the current moratorium which the World Bank itself helped establish and that it was also trading in dodgy timber. As a result, Olam has since given back its forest holdings to the DRC government, but it still buys illegal timber cut by local companies.

Right now, a group of Greenpeace climbers are perched on top of a set of cranes in the port of La Rochelle on the French Atlantic coast. They've been there since Wednesday night and as well as admiring a no-doubt magnificent view, they're also preventing a ship unloading its cargo of timber which has come from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Adrien Sinafasi Makelo (left) and René Ngongo (right) address MPs, civil servants and campaigners

On Thursday, I found myself at Portcullis House, an imposing edifice that sits across the road from the main Houses of Parliament building. The occasion was a panel discussion hosted by Greenpeace and (deep breath) the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the Great Lakes Region of Africa, to discuss the crisis in the Congo rainforest. As the name suggests, it's a collective of MPs from all parties with a special interest in that part of the world who try to make sure issues affecting the region remain on the political agenda.