Sostenibilità sociale e ambientale
Environmentalists break the bank
Monday 1,000 protesters shut down the global headquarters of the Royal Bank of Scotland in Scotland
Some 1,000 protesters representing the British environmental organisation Climate Camp for Action (CCA) are camped outside the Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) global headquarters in Gogarburn, Scotland. They are part of the groups “Break the Bank” campaign, protesting the bank’s foreign investments in coal, fossil fuel and the Canadian tar sands.
Protesters arrived in Gogarburn last Thursday and have been camping outside the bank’s headquarters all weekend, disrupting activities.
Last week some 150 protesters tried to storm the building and several arrests were made. CCA organisers have promised more “direct action” today saying they intend to shut down the bank’s operations.
The bank reacted by announcing that the building will be closed and that employees will work from home today, 23 August. “Our priority is to ensure we minimise disruption for staff and customers,” says a spokesman for the RBS.
According to CCA the bank is now “84 per cent owned by the UK public” and like any other public organisation should be acting sustainably and in the interest of the public good.
It is outraged that the RBS that has received $33 billion from the government as part of a bail out package is using at least part of that money to finance companies that are “trashing the climate.”
CCA says that between 2006 and 2008 the “RBS helped provide loans worth almost $16 billion [€12.6 billion] to coal related companies” and that between 2007 and 2009 it “led underwriting for the largest amount in loans to companies operating in controversial tar sands extraction in Canada, $7.5 billion [€5.9 billion].”
According to Severin Carrell, the British newspaper The Guardian’s Scotland correspondent, the RSB insist their loans are rarely given directly for tar sands projects but were often simple cash loans to companies involved in Canadian tar sands exploration.
They also accused the protesters of ignoring the RBS’s record on renewable energy investments: in 2006 the bank was the world’s largest single financier of wind and green energy.
