Bailed out Banks

Projection medium: photo: Maverick Photo Agency

The Government has spent billions of pounds bailing out banks. Banks that failed in large part because their investment strategies were hugely flawed. We think that UK taxpayers have the right to demand that banks bailed out with our cash should behave ethically and responsibly, with an eye to long term implications for the environment and for human rights.

The Royal Bank of Scotland – one of the four biggest banks in the world before the recent financial crisis – is now 84% Government (and therefore taxpayer) owned, yet it continues to invest our money in companies with questionable policies intent on dirty projects which damage the environment and threaten peoples human rights.

Oil Bank of $cotland

Exploitation of tar sands in the Alberta region of Canada has been the subject of international criticism for its negative impact on climate change, Canadian ecosystems and the indigenous communities that live in the region.

RBS has been involved in providing loans worth nearly £5bn in the last three years to companies carrying out highly controversial 'tar sands' mining in Canada.

A recently published report, 'Cashing in on Tar Sands – RBS, UK Banks and Canada’s 'Blood Oil', shows that outside of North America, RBS is involved in the highest quantity of loans to tar sands-related companies, equivalent to 8% of the global total.

Protest at RBS AGM: photo: Ric Lander

Bauxite Bucks

Vedanta Resources, a UK mining company, requested the permission of the Indian government to create a bauxite mine at the top of a mountain sacred to the Dongria Kondh tribe, and to expand their aluminium refinery at the foot of the hills. The bauxite will be used to make things like drinks cans and cars.

If the mine goes ahead, it will threaten the local people’s health, livelihoods and identity as a tribe. Vedanta were recently condemned by a British government department for breaking international frameworks on business and human rights, but have so far ignored their concerns.

RBS have given financial advice to Sterlite, a subsidiary of Vedanta, along with credit letters worth £60m. A number of high profile organisations have recently withdrawn their investments in Vedanta because of the company’s ongoing abuse of human rights, including the failure to declare the death of 41 workers at one of their Indian power plants.

Although the Indian Government recently refused permission for the mine to go ahead, Vedanta still have the right to appeal.

We think RBS’ association with Tar Sands and Vedanta is unacceptable.

Our campaign

We are part of a coalition of NGOs campaigning on tar sands including:

• PLATFORM
• World Development Movement
• People & Planet

We are calling on the Government to create a ‘Royal Bank of Sustainability’.

We think that bailed-out banks must be required to abide by the highest environmental and human rights standards when they invest taxpayers’ money.

The Treasury must ensure that all bailed-out banks, including RBS:

• Immediately stop investing in projects and companies that destroy fragile and irreplaceable eco-systems.
• Refuse to finance businesses or ventures that fail to uphold human rights or have close links to oppressive regimes.
• Set and publish annual reduction targets for the emissions resulting from lending to fossil fuel projects and companies, and,
• Prioritise lending to low-carbon companies, technologies and infrastructure

Find out more

Friends of the Earth has published reports about RBS and tar sands:

Make it Happen: From Oyal Bank of Scotland to Royal Bank of Sustainability

'Cashing in on Tar Sands – RBS, UK Banks and Canada’s 'Blood Oil'.

Tarsands: Fuelling the climate crisis

We have also produced an alternative People's Charter for RBS, outlining 14 commitments that could turn the bank into a Royal Bank of Sustainability.

What you can do

Email the Chancellor demanding that he puts pressure on RBS to invest in a socially and environmentally responsible way.

Come along to our free tar sands event featuring Chief Al Lameman of the Beaver Lake Cree Nation. Register now.

Donate to the Clean up RBS campaign today.

Switch to a more ethical bank, and write to RBS to tell them why.