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Fury over RBS ‘tar sands’ plan
News Articles | AOL News | November 17, 2009
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The First Nations women are also briefing MPs on the role of UK banks and oil companies in the extraction of the fuel in Canada, the production of which leads to more carbon emissions than other fossil fuels and damages the local environment.
And they are delivering an open letter to Chancellor Alistair Darling asking why the Treasury is allowing the part-nationalised bank to invest in the “destructive” fossil fuel.
Campaigners say the process of extracting tar sands produces three times the carbon emissions of conventional oil production.
A study last year by WWF and the Co-operative warned that the extraction of all the unconventional fossil fuels in North America would produce enough emissions to push atmospheric carbon dioxide levels well past the point at which dangerous climate change would occur.
New research by the Rainforest Action Network claims that RBS has provided almost 14 billion dollars (£8 billion) in financing to companies involved in the tar sands extraction in the Canadian province of Alberta.
Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation of Northern Alberta, said: “The tar sands is the world’s largest and most destructive industrial development.
“It is destroying an area of ancient forest larger than England. Millions of litres a day of toxic waste are seeping into our groundwater and we are seeing terrifyingly high levels of cancer in our communities.”
Heather Milton Lightening, from the Pasqua First Nation in neighbouring Saskatchewan, said: “Just when the world is focusing its attention on attempts to cut carbon emissions at December’s Copenhagen summit, the Canadian government is championing the extraction of billions of barrels of this dirty oil – and the UK taxpayer, through RBS, is financing it.
“We have come to the UK to get support in our struggle to leave tar sands in the ground, for the sake of our communities and for the climate.”
Tagged with: first nations, indigenous environmental network, rainforest action network, royal bank of scotland, athabasca chipewyan first nation
