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Camp for Climate Action to target RBS in 2010

April 22, 2010

  • Bank will be targeted over its massive fossil fuel investments
  • Announcement made one week ahead of RBS AGM

The Camp for Climate Action has announced today that it will be targeting the bailed-out Royal Bank of Scotland in 2010.1 The location  has yet to be revealed, and the group are promising that thousands will take action against the UK’s most controversial bank.

RBS received the biggest bail out of any bank worldwide and has long been criticised for being the UK bank that is the most heavily involved in financing fossil fuel companies around the world. In 2006,

a report calculated that the emissions embedded in its oil and gas portfolio were greater than that of Scotland itself. More recently, RBS was identified as the UK bank most involved with financing

companies engaged in Canadian tar sands extraction with the devastating impacts on the climate and on the lives of indigenous communities.2

Sonia Tiller, a spokesperson for the group said:

“The government refuses to do anything to prevent RBS from pouring billions of taxpayers’ money into incredibly destructive fossil fuel projects around the world. So it’s up to ordinary people to come

together again and stop these climate crimes from being committed, just like we did at Kingsnorth and Heathrow.”

Climate activist Sean Freeman from Leeds said:

“It’s bad enough that RBS were funding some of the dirtiest fossil fuel developments to happen around the world - now they are using tax payers’ money to do this. First, banks caused the financial crisis, and now they are dragging us headlong into the climate crisis too.”

The announcement was made a week before the RBS AGM which is to be held on 28 April in Edinburgh. An indigenous woman from Canada, Eriel Deranger will be attending the AGM to question RBS executives over the impact of their investments in the destruction of her home and community.3

The announcement of the secret location for the focus of the action is expected to be made in the next month.

 

For info/interviews, contact:

07040 900905

press@climatecamp.org.uk

ENDS

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NOTES

  1. The Camp for Climate Action is the UK’s most high profile direction action movement, which has previously organised camps at Drax Power Station, Heathrow Airport, Kingsnorth Power Station, the G20 and Blackheath Common. It aims to build a social movement of radical climate activists in the UK and presents a critique of the economic/political system underpinning the climate crisis.
  2. For more information on RBS’ fossil fuel finance, see the reports, “The Oil and Gas Bank” [Available from peopleandplanet.org/dl/ddd/rbs_report.pdf], “Cashing in on Coal: RBS, UK Banks and the Global Coal Industry” [Available fromwww.oyalbankofscotland.com/cioc/pdf/cashinginoncoal.pdf] and “Cashing in on Tar Sands: RBS, UK Banks and Canada’s ‘Blood Oil’” [Available from http://platformlondon.org/files/cashinginontarsandsweb.pdf].
  3. The NGOs that are organising the protest at the RBS AGM are the World Development Movement Scotland, Amnesty Scotland, Scottish Education and Action for Development, People & Planet and Platform. There will also be protests outside RBS branches across the UK on Saturday 24 April and Wednesday 28 April organised by the World Development Movement. These groups are also holding a “Public Shareholders Meeting” in the Mercure Hotel (6pm – 8pm) in Edinburgh on the evening of the AGM. These groups are entirely separate entities to the Camp for Climate Action.