More than two-thirds of the population in sub-Saharan Africa lacks electricity, with that figure growing to more than 85 percent in rural areas. In an attempt to address this dearth of energy access, President Obama initiated Power Africa in 2013. The interagency initiative has the goals of increasing access to electricity by adding 60 million electricity connections…
On October 14, 2016, an Australian–Canadian mining company OceanaGold/Pacific Rim (Pac Rim) lost a $301 million dollar suit against the people of El Salvador before a tribunal associated with the World Bank. Pac Rim alleged that El Salvador violated investor rights when it was not able to open a dangerous cyanide-leach gold mine at the basin of the Lempa River. The story of the Pac Rim case is disturbing. As a result of public…
Today, October 7, 2016 the United States and the European Union conclude week-long negotiations on the foundering Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership in New York City. At this latest negotiating round, held behind closed doors, civil society representatives were even denied an opportunity to make presentations at a stakeholder’s event, contrary to past practices. TTIP negotiating documents are classified as government secrets, even as several hundred corporate lobbyists who are “cleared advisors” to the U.S.…
Raising children in the age of global warming OK, I admit it; I am one of those parents who wants to shelter his kids from the worst of what’s out there. Don’t get me wrong; I know it I’ve got to keep my papa bear protective instincts in check, lest my kids end up unprepared for the real world that awaits them as adults and even teenagers. But at the same time, I want them…
In conjunction with the Save the Sundarbans protest today at the UN’s headquarters in New York City, we’re revealing in this EcoWatch exclusive that Friends of the Earth U.S. obtained documents that suggest the U.S. Export-Import Bank, Ex-Im Bank, which is supported by taxpayer dollars, is considering financing the Orion-Khulna coal plant near the Sundarbans in Bangladesh.
The struggle…
As the Board of the Green Climate Fund prepares to consider its first high risk projects at the upcoming GCF meeting in South Korea October 12-14, more than 100 groups have issued the following statement to express deep concern about the inadequacy of policies and practices in place for financing activities of high social and/or environmental risk. Here's the statement.
Civil Society Statement, September 22, 2016 Concerns Regarding Green Climate Fund and Support…
Last month, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature listed the Bornean orangutan as critically endangered -- joining its cousin the Sumatran orangutan in that classification. Immediately following, the IUCN World Conservation Congress agreed to take action to halt the expansion of the palm oil industry, for its role as a leading killer of tropical biodiversity. Simultaneously, news reports have begun to reveal that orangutans will be extinct within 10 years unless action is taken…
Everyone gathered underneath the central banyan tree that provided shade from the heat of the day. Not far from the city of Pemba, Mozambique, villagers clamored to tell us their stories of threats and lost land and livelihoods. This stop was the first of six villages I’d visit on my trip to northern Mozambique to conduct a field study of the…
In Nigeria, as elsewhere across the world, women are disproportionately affected by corporate land grabs and deforestation. Two recent victories by Nigerian women reclaiming 13,750 hectares of land from a palm oil company (Okomu Oil Palms Plc/Socfin Group) and a rubber company (Iyayi Group) demonstrate how women are organizing to challenge corporate power and win concrete gains for their people.
In this current edition of Friends of the Earth International’s Real World Radio,…
Dear Friends,
I am an eternal optimist. I have to be. Every day, Friends of the Earth confronts some of the largest national and global environmental problems. Our game plan typically strikes at the heart of the problem: Pesticides are killing bees and pollinators – so we go directly to the big agro-chemical companies like Bayer and Syngenta to put a stop to it. Palm oil producers are destroying tropical rainforests and hurting communities –…