Export-Import Bank to be protested over Australian coal port Wednesday

Export-Import Bank to be protested over Australian coal port Wednesday

Advocates will deliver over 600,000 signatures calling on the Ex-Im Bank to reject financing for the controversial Abbot Point coal export project

***Photo opportunities available***

What: A coalition of environmental and advocacy groups will deliver over 600,000 petition signatures to the U.S. Export-Import Bank calling on the bank to reject financing for the controversial Abbot Point coal export terminal and associated mine in Queensland, Australia.

Where: Export-Import Bank headquarters, 811 Vermont Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20571

When: Wednesday, June 17, 2015 at 10 a.m.

Who: Activists and members from Rainforest Action Network, Friends of the Earth, Avaaz, 350.org, Sierra Club, Greenpeace, and the Center for Biological Diversity

Why: Constructing the proposed new Abbot Point coal export terminal in Queensland, Australia would require dredging part of the Great Barrier Reef. Additionally, Abbot Point would unlock one of the largest stores of carbon on the planet, the Galilee Basin, to a global export market. Abbot Point, if built, would make Australia the world’s leading coal exporter, and would create roughly the equivalent carbon impact as burning all of the Alberta tar sands. Eleven of the world’s leading private investment banks, including Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase, have publicly ruled out providing financing to Indian conglomerate Adani Enterprises to build the project. But the U.S. Export-Import Bank has thus far refused to take a position, amid reports that the bank may be considering a request for financing from Adani.

Visuals: Activists wearing blue clothing and clownfish costumes rallying in front of Ex-Im Bank headquarters with colorful banners, signs, and boxes. Activists delivering boxes of petition signatures to Ex-Im officials inside the building.

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Expert contacts:
Jenny Bock, (646) 258-6998, [email protected]
Claire Sandberg, (646) 641-6431 [email protected]

Communications contact: Kate Colwell, (202) 222-0744, [email protected]

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