Hypocrisy, hypocrisy ...by Daniel Mitller
It is warm in Madrid. And if you arrive by Metro, the north entrance of the IFEMA centre, where the ADB meeting is taking place, is not all that obvious to find. So, I - Daniel Mittler of Greenpeace International - was wondering around the IFEMA yesterday morning - hot and sweaty and thinking about climate change... And the first thing I saw of the ADB meeting was a fleet of heavy, fuel-guzzling Audi cars. Ready to drive delegations anywhere. And all with their engines running even though they were not going anywhere. The drivers were simply keen on enjoying a cool, air-conditioned working/waiting environment ...
Somehow, this image of 30-40 idle limousines spewing out fumes while doing nothing, seemed to be a fitting image of the ADB's climate hypocrisy. The ADB says it takes climate change seriously. It talks about it a lot. But at the same time the ADB funds climate change - e.g. by paying for coal fired power plants in Vietnam and India. At an event here yesterday, an ADB representative called their continued support for fossil fuels "pragmatic". May be it's just me. But I fail to see what is pragmatic about using taxpayers money to tie developing countries into a fossil-fuel dependent development path - when we know that we need to reduce emissions rapidly and globally if we want to prevent the poor being hit hardest by climate change. Pragmatism is to face up to reality and deal with it. Not to sit around spewing fumes while it gets hotter and hotter!
Audi pictures to follow! Technical glitches...
1 comment:
Such Hypocrisy indeed! Kudos to the NGO Forum team in Madrid. My heart goes to all of you....
Now that I am home 'resting', have more time to 'observe'...
Thrice a week, I bring my kids to lessons at a building right next to the ADB headquarters in Manila. Employees, officials and executives troop to this building for lunch at various hi-end restaurants. During the week of the AGM in Madrid when civil society, the media and several donor countries put ADB's role into question - amidst the food crisis, rising fossil fuel prices and the serious threats from extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change in this region - I didn't sense any 'climate of worry' and need for emergency action from members of this institution. Instead their PR machinery is up and running in full force trying to justify the Bank's continued relevance. And for a development institution that takes pride in being a leader amongst many other IFIs not just on 'poverty alleviation activities' but on 'climate change action as well', it is indeed hypocritical to be announcing the approval of yet another coal plant in the region (India), following the Vietnam coal approval just months ago. It is a clear sign of the Bank's continuing practice of the 'approval culture' so they can continue to move funds (now focused on private equity funds and mobilizing private sector) at the expense of Asia's poor and most vulnerable and at the expense of ecosystems already under threat from various natural and human-induced stresses.
As Hemantha said, What the hell is going on????
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