British MPs Call for an End to Oil Aid

[Graham Saul]

British Member of Parliament Michael Meacher has introduced an “early day motion” that calls on the British aid agency, the Department for International Development, to stop subsidizing oil companies through development agencies like the World Bank. Other Members of Parliament are invited to endorse the motion, which will stay open until November. A similar motion last year attracted the support of more than 137 MPs.

 

The motion, which was pioneered with the support of the UK network Plan B, reads: “That this House notes that the Department for International Development (DFID) provides both financial and political support for oil companies in developing countries through multilateral organisations; further notes that this support is inconsistent with its mandate to alleviate poverty and help mitigate the effects of climate change in those countries, and that increasing access to low carbon energy is critical to achieving the Millennium Development Goals; and calls on DFID to produce a strategy on energy and climate change which contribute to overall reductions in carbon dioxide emissions by phasing out support for oil and gas projects, massively increasing support for renewable, decentralised energy supplies, and reporting regularly to Parliament on the impact of its energy and climate change strategy on carbon dioxide emissions and poverty alleviation as part of its duties under the International Development (Reporting and Transparency) Act 2006.”

http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=32957&SESSION=885

In other news: Things are heating up for Wolfowitz at the World Bank. The Government Accountability Project (GAP) is accusing beleaguered World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz of trying to weaken references to climate change in the World Bank's Clean Energy and Investment Framework. GAP has released an internal summary of a February 2006 World Bank meeting on the Framework. The meeting summary includes the following passage: “Feedback from the President’s office subsequent to the meeting asked the team to refocus the paper shifting from a climate lens mainly to a clean energy lens.” This development comes on the heels of accusations from the World Bank's Chief Scientist, Bob Watson, that Wolfowitz's handpicked Managing Director, Juan Jose Daboub, tried to “water down references to climate change.”

 

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