IMF governance reform negligible and needs to go much further

As the Board of Directors of the International Monetary Fund met last Friday to agree on reform of the institution, Oxfam International has warned that the proposal for discussion means minimal change in the organization’s structure.
The Board signed off on a “quota formula” that will decide the share of votes that each country receives. But Oxfam warned that the poorest countries will not see any real increase in their voting share. After years of debate, a proposal that gives only a small increase in quota share for a handful of developing countries - and none for the rest – is more than disappointing. Also, this proposal must be the beginning of a longer debate that will give poor countries a bigger say in the decision-making process. This cannot be the end of the line, Oxfam said.

“The Europeans need to give up their overly-dominant position. It’s unacceptable that Ireland, Greece and Luxembourg are about to see an increase in their voice, while poor countries that make up 70% of the IMF's work, gain nothing,” said Oxfam International’s Elizabeth Stuart. Oxfam warned that the proposal on the table will barely increase the minuscule voice of Sub-Saharan Africa – which includes South Africa and 39 other countries – at the IMF. The G7 grouping of industrialized countries meanwhile, will keep more than 45% of the quotas in the Fund.

“The proposal under discussion does not represent the long-overdue reform that was promised. The new Managing Director of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, should use his influence on shareholders to bring about the necessary reform to the way the institution is run. The IMF needs to come into the twenty-first century,” Stuart said. The final decision will be voted on and passed on by Finance Ministers as part of the spring meetings on April 12-13 in Washington. However, the decision is likely to be a rubber-stamping exercise on what is agreed this week.

Protest Rallies Against Turkish Dam All Over Europe

Critics of the ill-conceived Ilisu Dam in Turkey today held protests and rallies all over Europe in front of government buildings, banks and companies involved in the dam project. Actions were planned for Paris, Milan, Rome, Perugia, Berlin, Stuttgart and other German cities today, March 14, to mark the International Day of Action for Rivers, Water and Life. At least 77 organisations from 20 countries, including France, Germany and Italy, are all urging the governmental and financial institutions to withdraw from the project.

The protesters' case against the dam was bolstered by revelations in a new report that environmental and social conditions are not being followed. Indeed, the report – written by a committee of experts hired by European governments – shows that the social and environmental risks of the project are as great as anticipated by NGO critics. The experts found that Turkish officials in charge of the project were completely unfamiliar with the additional social and environmental requirements, which were conditions of loans to the project from European financial institutions. Among their findings were that 200 additional experts would have to be hired for the resettlement plan alone, that plans to create an archaeological park with monuments from the flooded area are unlikely to attract tourists, and that those monuments cannot be transported without risk of destruction and damage. The experts also revealed that key environmental studies are missing.

The planned Ilisu Dam is extremely controversial because of its massive negative environmental, social and cultural impacts. At least 55,000 people would have to be displaced for the project and a 10,000-year-old town would be flooded. Last year governments of Germany, Austria and Switzerland granted export credit guarantees for the project. They justified this support by attaching environmental and social conditions to the contracts, claiming that the project would then adhere to international standards. But Heike Drillisch from the German organisation World Economy, Ecology & Development (WEED) asserts, “The European governments try to continue with business as usual and negotiate new deadlines with the Turkish officials. In reality, the report reveals the fiasco the European governments entered into by approving the export credit guarantees for Ilisu.”

Governments and companies must deliver on EITI

Governments and companies signed up to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) must now deliver concrete results towards making revenues and payments from oil, gas and mining transparent and accountable, said the global civil society coalition Publish What You Pay (PWYP). Seven resource-rich countries were approved as EITI candidates by the EITI Board in Accra, Ghana last month, bringing the total number of EITI candidate countries to 22. PWYP is a global coalition of over 300 civil society organisations campaigning for transparency and accountability in the extractive industries. PWYP is represented on the multi-stakeholder EITI Board through various member organisations, such as Oxfam, Global Witness, Grupo Propuesta Ciudadana, La Rencontre pour la Paix et les Droits de l'Homme, and Secours Catholique.

“We will hold all candidate countries to the same standard of civil society engagement in the EITI implementation and validation process,” said Bennett Freeman, an EITI Board member representing Oxfam America and Oxfam International. “In some countries in particular, fundamental reforms will be necessary to allow civil society to play its rightful role as envisioned by the EITI.” The seven new candidate countries are: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Madagascar, the Republic of Congo, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone and Timor-Leste. The following 15 countries were accepted as EITI candidates in September 2007: Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Mongolia, Niger, Nigeria, Peru, and Yemen.

“Companies, too, need to step up to the plate and fulfil their end of the bargain,” said Corinna Gilfillan of Global Witness. “It is unacceptable that only 3 of the 37 oil, gas and mining companies that have endorsed the EITI have complied with the requirement to report on steps taken to meet the EITI transparency principles.” These 3 companies are Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron and StatoilHydro.

PWYP called on governments to move forward swiftly with implementation, and urged the EITI to carefully monitor country progress and to provide the necessary support and technical assistance. All countries have a 2 year period in which to become validated as fully compliant with the EITI criteria or face losing their candidate status. PWYP also welcomed the creation of an EITI working group to develop effective EITI responses in instances when civil society participation is threatened. “Transparency activists, including some EITI Board members, have faced threats, harassment and, in some cases, even imprisonment in places such as Gabon, Angola, and the Republic of Congo,” said Radhika Sarin, International Coordinator of PWYP. “Civil society participation is intrinsic to the EITI process, and the EITI must have a zero-tolerance policy on this critical issue.”

Social Watch: New Gender Equity Index

The economic dimension is the next challenge towards global gender equity. More than half the women in the world live in countries that have made no progress towards gender equity in recent years. That is one of the findings of the Gender Equity Index (GEI) 2008 that Social Watch launched here as a contribution to the 52nd Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women that will end next March 8, the International Women’s Day. The GEI, developed and calculated by Social Watch, ranks 157 countries in a scale where 100 would imply complete equality between women and men in education, participation in the economy and in decision-making bodies (empowerment).

Yet the highest-ranking country in the world (Sweden) has an index of 89 and the world average if of 61. Finland (85) and Norway (84) follow Sweden in the table, and after that come Germany and Rwanda, both with 80. While the first four countries are among the richest of the world, Rwanda is one of the poorest. German Women are obviously better educated and live longer than those in Rwanda. What the index shows is that the gap separating their condition from those of men is similar. “The GEI for 2008 clearly shows that income alone is no guarantee for gender equity”, emphasizes Social Watch coordinator Roberto Bissio. Countries with very high per capita incomes, such as Luxembourg or Switzerland, have the same equity level as Mozambique, a country with a much lower income level.

For the first time this year, the GEI is able to show recent evolution (last five years) in 133 countries. While there is no enough evidence yet to show the evolution of very populous countries like China and India, the indicators do show that progress towards gender equity is difficult and vulnerable to regressions. Education is the dimension that is closer to complete equity, with a global average of 90. But in education more countries are regressing than those making progresses. Empowerment is the dimension where most countries are showing progress, but it is also the one where the global average is the lowest, reaching only 35 points out of 100. In terms of the economy, there are as many countries where women make progress as countries regressing.

The economic dimension of the gender equity index measures gaps in women's participation in the labour market and in the salaries earned by them as compared to men. Among the 15 top places in economic participation, the Nordic countries – Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark and Finland - share the honour with ten of the poorest countries in the world: Mozambique, Burundi, Rwanda, Cambodia, Ghana, Viet Nam, Uganda, Madagascar, Kenya and Guinea. At the root of most of the national regressions in the total GEI the index points out to setbacks in the participation of women in the economy. This is the case of Eastern Europe, the region presenting the biggest reversions in this area. Latvia, Belarus, Slovakia or Macedonia, all of them countries that used to enjoy high levels of female participation in the economy are now to be found in the group of those regressing.

According to Genoveva Tisheva, managing director of the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation and a member of the Coordinating Committee of Social Watch, “in Eastern Europe women are more often unemployed after the completion of a higher educational degree”. Tisheva argues that “legal and regulatory measures should ensure access to the labour market of young women and other groups of women with less bargaining power and from vulnerable groups”. Tisheva warns that the global trends of trade liberalization “have made of women one of the most flexible participants in the labour market, subjected to deregulation, informalisation, lowering of the social and labour standards”.

Affirmative measures such as gender quotas for political participation in elected bodies and pro-equity regulations in the labour market are behind most of the success stories of countries making progress in the Gender Equity Index.

Find more information about the Gender Equity Index and the complete statistical tables >>> here.

Friends of the Earth launched 'Big Ask' climate campaign across Europe

A Europe-wide climate campaign launched this week by Friends of the Earth Europe and the Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke aims to get governments and the European Union to commit to annual cuts in emissions to fight climate change. The Big Ask brings together Friends of the Earth groups from 17 European countries each of which is asking its government to introduce legally binding annual emission cuts. Together they are asking the European Union to force all member states to cut their emissions year-on-year. Thom Yorke launched the European campaign in Brussels where he presented a symbol of the Big Ask to the European Environment Commissioner, Stavros Dimas. Thom Yorke has supported the Big Ask campaign in the UK where thanks to two years of campaigning from Friends of the Earth, a ground-breaking climate change bill is currently being made law. Now he is bringing the campaign to the rest of Europe.

Around Europe people are being asked to send a message to their politicians asking them to commit to annual cuts in emissions. Individuals can find out more about their national campaign at the Big Ask website. Different activities took place across the continent to mark the start of the European campaign. In Finland activists raised awareness with snowman rallies in 22 towns and cities while in the Netherlands activists built a dyke in front of the parliament building and invited politicians and celebrities to fill the gaps with sand-bags. At a European level Friends of the Earth Europe wants to see annual emission reductions for all member states and a strong compliance system to guarantee that these cuts really take place.

The Big Ask calls on the European Union to commit to at least 30% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions within Europe by 2020 and 90% by 2050. Friends of the Earth Europe has criticised the European Union's recent proposal to cut emissions by only 20% by 2020 and for giving no guarantee that these targets will be met.

Former French minister chosen as Ban’s Special Advisor on Innovative Financing for Development

With official development assistance (ODA) still insufficient to achieve global anti-poverty targets by 2015, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed France’s former foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy to develop and promote new sources of funding, citing the urgent need to fill this critical gap. Douste-Blazy, appointed as Ban’s Special Adviser on Innovative Financing for Development, currently serves as Chairman of the Executive Board of UNITAID – the international drug purchase facility hosted by the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

A doctor by profession, he has held ministerial posts in the French Government in health, culture and foreign affairs. During his tenure as France’s foreign minister, Douste-Blazy strongly advocated for the creation of UNITAID and the implementation in France of a solidarity levy on airline tickets aimed at supporting the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Among his tasks in his new post will be to promote UNITAID and other sources of innovative financing for the achievement of the MDGs and to ensure they are coordinated with the global development agenda. “We are halfway in the timetable with the deadline in 2015, but we are not halfway in terms of results,” Douste-Blazy told reporters last week in New York. “The truth is we are late.”

Douste-Blazy is planning to convene next year the first-ever world conference devoted solely to innovative financing, which will focus on the development funds provided by citizens, local and regional authorities, foundations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), economic and social representatives, faith groups and the private sector.

European business: Greening or greenwashing the economy?

At the 6th European Business Summit in Brussels last week, environment campaigners accused companies involved in the event, titled 'Greening the economy', of being anything but green themselves. With an action and exhibition, Friends of the Earth Europe, Corporate Europe Observatory and Transnational Institute exposed the greenwashing practices of the businesses taking part. The campaigners 'greenwashed' the corporate social responsibility reports of high-profile companies taking part in the summit. The action was designed to expose companies' efforts to attain environmental credentials when in reality their operations have detrimental effects on the environment and local communities worldwide and contribute significantly to global warming.

"If the organisers of the European Business Summit seriously want to discuss a greener economy, why do they invite the most polluting companies and sectors?" asks Paul de Clerck, Corporate Campaign Coordinator for Friends of the Earth Europe. "That an event titled 'Greening the economy' is dominated by dirty laggards instead of green leaders is hypocritical." The European Business Summit (EBS) is an annual high-level conference organised by BUSINESSEUROPE, the lobby organisation of big European companies. During the EBS, business leaders and CEOs meet with European commissioners and top national politicians. This year's event was attended by eight European Commissioners, including Commission president Barroso. The summit provides a floor to some of the most polluting companies in the world and some of the worst performers in their sectors.

Among a host of environmentally dubious companies taking part, sponsoring or attending the summit, the green groups drew particular attention to some for the environmentally harmful impacts of their business behaviour:
* BMW and Volvo: For producing the least fuel efficient cars of the 20 top-selling brands in Europe
* E.on: For owning three of the most polluting power stations in Europe
* Fortis: For investing in controversial companies such as Freeport McMoRan, operator of the world's most polluting gold mine
* Gazprom: For owning the controversial Sakhalin II oil and gas project, which threatens the survival of the last 100 Western Grey Whales
* Lufthansa and KLM: For downplaying the fact that aviation has by far the greatest climate impact of any mode of transport
* Shell: For continuing the climate-polluting practice of gas-flaring in Nigeria and harming the environment and local communities near its refineries around the world.

Debt relief: What’s been achieved since the Birmingham G8?

University of Birmingham is holding a conference on 16 and 17 May to support the city's celebration of the 10th anniversary of Birmingham's G8 meeting in 1998. The 1998 G8 meeting is particularly remembered for the human chain formed around Birmingham city centre by 70,000 people to demand debt cancellation for the world's poorest nations from the G8. Ten years on is an appropriate moment to reflect on impacts, innovations, outstanding problems and priorities for the next decade. Taking part in the conference will be a wide range of analysts of debt and development issues, aid practitioners and policy makers, from recipient and donor countries and multilateral organisations. The programme is organised by theme, with keynote speeches, panels and breakout groups.

The conference has three objectives: to assess the impact of debt relief in poor countries; to analyse problems in debt relief processes and their underlying causes; to discuss reform priorities and innovations. It will be an academic conference with a difference since it kicks off a weekend of events culminating in a high publicity gathering at the International Conference Centre in Birmingham’s city centre on 18 May, organised by Jubilee Debt Campaign with support of Birmingham City Council. Submitted papers that address the conference objectives, including issues underlying debt relief problems, are welcomed. Papers from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds are invited. The organisers also welcome short research briefs (e.g. describing research recently begun), so that upcoming research is publicised at the conference.

Contacts: debtconf@contacts.bham.ac.uk (for papers and abstracts) and sarah@jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk

ILO convention to protect domestic workers gets ITUC support

Already grouping over one hundred million workers worldwide, the largely female domestic labour force is continuing to grow in line with the rising demand for these services. Whilst contributing to improving the quality of life and living standards of others, domestic workers themselves remain confined within an invisible and very poorly protected segment of the labour market. Although a vital link in the economic chain, they are often deprived of their basic rights and confronted with exploitation and ill-treatment.

Calling on its affiliates to rally to the cause, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is urging the countries represented on the ILO Governing Body to support the proposal to draw up an International Convention specifically to protect domestic workers. Excessive working hours, low wages, inadequate or no social security, sexual harassment, physical abuse, unscrupulous employment agencies, no trade union rights, forced labour – the inventory of abuses drawn up in the document to be submitted to the members of the ILO Governing Body, which will meet in Geneva from 6 to 20 March, highlights the cruel lack of decent work among this category of particularly vulnerable workers, often excluded from national labour legislations and, until now, ignored by international law. "For the international trade union movement, ensuring better protection for domestic workers is one of the keys to promoting decent work, which is at the heart of our action," declared Guy Ryder, General Secretary of the ITUC.

EU fuelling human right disaster in Indonesia

Palm oil production for food and agrofuels is resulting in widespread human rights abuses in Indonesia according to a report released by a coalition of international environmental groups. Losing Ground exposes the huge social problems being fuelled by EU targets to increase the use of agrofuels (often called biofuels) in transport. The report follows new research released last week which revealed that converting peatlands for palm oil in Indonesia releases 423 times more carbon than the annual savings from replacing fossil fuels. According to Adrian Bebb, Friends of the Earth Europe agrofuels campaigner the report shows that as well as being bad for the environment, fuels from palm oil are a disaster for people. “MEPs should listen to the evidence and reject the proposed 10% target at the forthcoming debate on this in the European Parliament. Instead of introducing targets for more agrofuels the EU should insist that all new cars are designed to be much more efficient. Governments must also take a strong position against the target and do their bit to reduce transport emissions by improving public transport and making it easier for people to walk and cycle."

The report by Friends of the Earth, Sawit Watch, and LifeMosaic reveals that oil palm companies often use violent tactics to grab land from indigenous communities with the collusion of the police and authorities. Previously self-reliant families, who were able to meet their own needs from the forest around them, complain of being tricked into giving up their land with the promise of jobs and new developments. Instead they end up locked into debt and poorly paid work, while the bounty of the rainforest is replaced with monotonous oil palm plantations. Pollution from pesticides, fertilisers and the pressing process is also leaving some villages without clean water.

The European Commission has recently proposed a target for 10% of road transport fuel to come from agrofuels by 2020 in an attempt to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, despite mounting evidence that agrofuels fail to deliver such reductions. These targets will fuel a huge expansion in the amount of land used to grow oil palm. Since 2005, Friends of the Earth, Sawit Watch and LifeMosaic have worked closely together on a project aimed at bringing impartial information to communities affected by oil palm plantations in Indonesia, enabling them to make informed decisions about their land and their futures.

Mexico: New ITUC report on core labour standards

Coinciding with Mexico’s trade policy review at the WTO, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) released a new report on the country’s core labour standards. The report highlights that despite the binding nature of the ILO core labour standards that Mexico has ratified, both in law and in practice the country is in breach of those conventions. Furthermore Mexico has only ratified six of the eight core labour standards of the ILO. The report points out that violations regarding trade union autonomy are constant and that many obstacles prevent the effective right to form an independent union. There are numerous examples of government interference in trade union affairs. The ILO’s supervisory bodies have urged the government of Mexico many times to amend its legislation on the right to strike, given the existing broad restrictions on its effective application.

According to the ITUC survey, legislation against discrimination is not enforced adequately in the country and there is a substantial gap between women and men in terms of remuneration, reaching 50% in many sectors. Sexual harassment is a common practice at the workplace, yet is not adequately addressed by the government. Official figures show that there are at least 3 million child workers between the ages of 6 and 14 in Mexico. The ITUC report draws attention to the high degree of drop-out from school in order to go to work. Access to schooling in a language other than Spanish is frequently unavailable, preventing many children of indigenous origin from completing their education. Forced labour, including of children takes place in Mexico, again particularly affecting indigenous people.

UN members must make decent work a prime commitment, say Global and European trade unions

On the occasion of the 46th session of the United Nations Commission for Social Development, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC) call for agreement on a strong resolution to go forward to the UN General Assembly, asserting the crucial importance of full employment and decent work in the fight against poverty. Trade unions welcome the UN Commission's decision to focus on 'full and productive employment and decent work' as its 2007-2008 priority. Alarming trends in unemployment in the wake of the current global market turmoil and the threat of recession - revealed in the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) new Global Employment Report 2008 - mean urgent action is needed.

A 20-strong trade union delegation in New York is telling the UN Commission that it is crucial for it to agree on a hard-hitting message identifying decent work as a central objective, to be integrated systematically into social, economic and development policies at national, regional and international levels. While global growth in recent years has brought new jobs, many of them are low-paid and low-quality, leaving many working poor unable to support themselves and their families. Worldwide, an estimated 195 million people are likely to be unemployed in 2008.

Policies should aim at quality jobs, education, and skills development, to address youth unemployment and enable people to escape from precarious or informal work – many of them women. Financial resources are key to success, and must be raised through progressive taxation regimes and development cooperation funding. Decent work further entails the full respect of trade unions’ rights to organise and bargain collectively, a lesson all the more important for governments because unions are central actors in achieving greater income equality through fighting poverty and increasing the purchasing power of low-income workers, the trade unions say in a statement.

Food security as key: New biofuels report

If developing countries, particularly commodity producers are to benefit from biofuels sector development, they should consider strategic policy options that do not jeopardise their capacity to maintain sustainable food supply for their populations, according to a new study released by the Common Fund for Commodities at an international forum on biofuels held recently in Kuala Lumpur. “Fundamentally, there is a link between poverty reduction and biofuels sector development that can be promoted,” said Ambassador Ali Mchumo, the managing director of the Common Fund in Amsterdam.

“Both the outcome report and the study offer an assessment of the lifecycle costs and benefits of intensified biofuels production, while providing future outlook; and an attempt to identify the likely challenges and opportunities for commodity producers in developing countries in the coming years,” he said. The Biofuels study is the latest in the Commodity Issues Series commissioned by the Amsterdam-based intergovernmental organisation, whose mandate under the United Nations is to support developing countries that are commodity-dependent to improve and diversify commodities production and trade. It outlines a number of policy recommendations, specifically targeted to commodity-dependent developing countries, interested in broader bio-energy ventures and diversification.

The report further underscores the importance of astute policy formulation around four major areas that are pertinent in the ongoing debate about diversification policies for biofuels sector development, including food security issues and others, such as: energy security; rural and social development; climate change mitigation; export growth and diversification. At the forum in Kuala Lumpur, where member countries represented in the Common Fund were gathered for their annual meeting, prominent international experts made presentations demonstrating how different approaches work in the context of different countries and regions. In the report, the experts, including the lead author of the study, expanded on the potential food security implications of policies that have been undertaken by a number of countries and offered practical experiences gained in various biofuel initiatives in Brazil, India, Madagascar, Peru, Indonesia, as well as in Malaysia.

New website ‘Whither EC Aid?’

The European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) and ActionAid International launched a new website for their joint project ‘Whither EC Aid?’ This project aims to re-position the debate on monitoring the effectiveness of European Commission aid by seeking to open it up and bring in the views of a wide variety of stakeholders. The next five years will be decisive for the future direction of international development co-operation in general and European Union co-operation in particular. The European Commission (EC) plays a crucial role in EU development co-operation, as a facilitator as well as a sizeable donor in its own right. Despite ambitious international aid goals, there is a lack of shared understanding of key underlying issues that shape the EC aid effectiveness debate.

On the basis of the outcomes of the research and consultation phases, a final report on “Whither EC Aid?” will be written and completed in spring 2008.

To participate or send your comments and suggestions, go to >>> www.weca-ecaid.eu

Oxfam welcomes 'Call to Action' on poverty at Davos

International agency Oxfam welcomed the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon's 'Call to Action' to end world poverty made at the World Economic Forum in Davos, but warned that concrete proposals must emerge at the UN meeting in New York in September this year to turn the rhetoric into reality.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, rock star Bono, Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua and Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan joined Ban in a joint call for urgent action to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, progress on which is sorely lacking in most areas. A number of companies also supported the call.

Barbara Stocking, director of Oxfam GB, who is attending the meeting, said: "There is no reason and no excuse for the enduring and obscene levels of poverty in the world. Concerted action from political leaders in response to the demands of global citizens could overturn this inequity. Today's call is welcome, but it will only be meaningful if it is followed by concrete proposals and genuine action from all the major players. We must look back this in years to come and see it as a turning point, not a talking shop."

The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) include halving extreme poverty, halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015. All the world's governments and leading development institutions have agreed to them. Stocking: "These goals are ambitious but they were chosen precisely because they are reachable. Frankly they are the absolute minimum that we ought to achieve. They are non-negotiable and yet here we are, half way through the time we have to deliver on them, too far away from too many of them. Leaders gathered here in Davos, and those around the world watching the meeting, must redouble their efforts to make sure we don't miss this target, for our own sakes, as well as the sake of future generations."

Davos: Dangerous complacency over global economy

Political and business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos are showing few signs of recognising their failure to tackle governance of the global economy, according to the international trade union delegation attending the gathering. “Governments have got it badly wrong and are showing dangerous complacency even as the obvious cracks in the world economy are widening”, said Guy Ryder, General Secretary if the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). The global union movement, in its statement to the Davos meeting, has set out a series of urgently-needed measures to deal with the falling share of national income going to wages around the world, the need for proper regulation and transparency in financial markets, stimulating growth in key economies, tackling unemployment and poverty, and arresting the decline in social institutions and public services. The four pillars of decent work – employment, workers’ rights, social protection and social dialogue – are necessary components of the remedy to the current crisis.

“Governments are faced with a stark choice – business as usual, with a roller-coaster economy where working people receive few of the benefits of upswings and bear most of the brunt of the bad times, or coherent and responsible global cooperation. Governments have to understand the need for proper financial regulation, and this time, they need to get it right”, said John Evans, General Secretary of the OECD Trade Union Advisory Committee.

The union statement highlights inequality as a major factor in the current instability, with the share of national income going to wages decreasing continuously over recent decades in the vast majority of developing and industrial countries. “The 'golden era' of globalization has made a lucky circle very rich indeed, but most people are missing out on the benefits. When workers get a fair share of the pie, economies work better because they have the purchasing power to simulate growth. The world desperately needs politicians to show the courage to make this happen”, said Philip Jennings, General Secretary of UNI Global Union. Another key message from the unions at Davos is the pressing need to invest in “green jobs”, with the twin aims of tackling climate change and creating high quality employment.

The EU’s climate and energy package fails to help the poor

Europe set itself up in Bali as a world leader on tackling climate change but is in danger of falling at the first hurdle, international agency Oxfam and Friends of the Earth Europe warned yesterday. The European Union has missed a crucial opportunity with its Energy Package to help the world's poor - the very people who suffer most from climate change. Biofuels could be part of the solution to tackle climate change and poverty alleviation, but not under the EC's current plans. Its own internal report has shown that the EC has failed to think through its 10% target for transport fuels by 2020 and that the costs of its biofuels policy will outweigh the benefits. The EC's headlong rush into biofuels has already caused a big scramble by poor countries keen to cash in.

Oxfam believes the EU should scrap its current plan for biofuels. When it goes back to the drawing board it must ensure that the use of biofuels will contribute to cost-effective CO2 emissions and development - not potentially make both worse. The European Commission must also rethink its targets for emissions cuts by member states. The current calculations that focus on a 20% cut in emissions will mean Europe has to abandon its objective of keeping temperature increase below the EU-approved target of 2° Celsius.

Friends of the Earth Europe also warned that plans to cut the EU's greenhouse gas emissions by only 20% will not be sufficient to avert dangerous climate change. The environment group says the Commission has backtracked on its position at international climate negotiations just weeks ago and calls on the Parliament and the Council of Ministers to dramatically strengthen the target.
Friends of the Earth Europe is also highly critical of the Commission's support for agrofuels (also known as biofuels) against the advice of their own scientists and growing international concern. Bigger emission cuts are needed if the EU is to meet its own target of limiting temperature increases to 2° Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels.

Emissions under the European Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) will deliver the other part of the cuts needed for the EU emission target for 2020. Friends of the Earth Europe welcomes the new EU wide CAP as a good move towards stricter emission cuts but demands that the ETS cap be set in line with a target of at least 30% domestic emission cuts and that the number of external credits obtained from projects outside the EU be restricted. Instead of the Commission's weak auctioning proposals which allow significant free allocations to industrial sectors, certificates should be fully auctioned in all sectors.

Friends of the Earth Europe welcomes the implementation of an overall share of 20% renewable energy by 2020 and the Commission's move to take out mandatory trading from this directive. As the text reads now, trading of renewable electricity (known as Guarantees of Origin) is better regulated and only those Member States that have reached their national interim targets may transfer Guarantees of Origin to other underachieving countries. This is a positive move and will not hamper the development of all types of renewables across the EU.

A target to improve the EU's energy efficiency by 20% by 2020 as agreed by the EU last year is completely lacking from the package. Energy efficiency represents the EU's biggest potential for reducing emissions and reports from the EU state that 20% more energy efficiency could be reached at zero net costs. According to Friends of the Earth Europe energy efficiency remains a non-topic as discussions in the EU on climate protection move on.

EU biofuel target: Rethinking underway

Last Friday, a group of 17 NGOs - including Oxfam, Brot für die Welt (‘Bread for the World’) and Friends of the Earth - sent a letter to EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs, asking him to introduce much tougher standards for biofuel production or give up mandatory transport biofuel targets altogether. They argued that the existing draft legislation does not provide protection for important ecosystems, such as savannas or permanent grasslands "that may be threatened by expanding agriculture to meet the EU's biofuel target." "Destruction of these carbon sinks would lead to large emissions of carbon into the atmosphere, thereby reducing or neutralising the benefits from growing biofuels. Neither does the draft text provide any safeguards to protect water and soil resources," they said in a statement. They also noted that "large scale biofuel production can cause negative indirect or knock-on impacts such as increasing food and feed prices and increasing water scarcity which would lead to negative impacts on the world's poor," in line with earlier studies by a number of experts on the issue.

In reaction, EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas suggested the pending guidelines should be altered, saying it would be better to miss the biofuels target than to hurt the poor or damage the environment. "We have seen that the environmental problems caused by biofuels and also the social problems are bigger than we thought they were. So we have to move very carefully," Mr Dimas told the BBC. "We have to have criteria for sustainability, including social and environmental issues, because there are some benefits from biofuels," he added.

Last September, the EU's plan to boost the use of biofuels as part of wider plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions received a serious blow from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), grouping the world's 30 most developed countries. The Paris-based body argues that state subsidies for biofuels could lead to food price hikes and damage to forests and natural habitats while its impact in terms of the fight against climate change may only be limited.

'Sustainable palm oil' advert false, says watchdog

Friends of the Earth Europe has welcomed a ruling on 9 January by the UK advertising watchdog that describing palm oil as "sustainably produced" is false advertising. The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruling followed a Friends of the Earth Europe complaint against an advert by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council. The advert, which appeared on the TV channel BBC World in the summer of 2007, was deemed to have used highly misleading wording and imagery. Footage of a palm oil plantation was interspersed with shots of pristine rainforest, and accompanied with claims that palm oil is "a gift from nature, a gift for life", that "its trees help our planet breathe", and declaring that Malaysian palm oil has been "sustainably produced since 1917". Friends of the Earth Europe complained that the statement "sustainably produced since 1917" is untrue: most palm oil is produced in a way that is not at all socially or environmentally sustainable.

The campaigning group also protested that the advert as a whole was misleading because it implied that palm oil production benefits the environment. Research shows that 86% of all deforestation in Malaysia between 1995 and 2000 was attributed to palm oil development, threatening species such as the orangutan and the proboscis monkey as well as causing social problems for the people who live or depend on the forests. The draining and deforesting of weatlands in South-East Asia, predominantly to make way for palm plantations, releases huge amounts of soil carbon into the atmosphere, accounting for a massive 8% of global annual CO2 emissions.

The ASA fully upheld Friends of the Earth Europe's complaints and condemned the statements for implying universal acceptance that palm oil is being sustainably produced. The watchdog ruled that the Malaysian Palm Oil Council had not provided the necessary evidence to back up such statements. The ASA also concluded that the adverts were misleading, "because there was not a consensus that there was a net benefit to the environment from Malaysia's palm oil plantations" and said that this advert should not be broadcast again.

European Heads of State agreed in March 2007 that by 2020, 10% of transport fuels in Europe should consist of plant-based agrofuels like palm oil. In addition, palm oil is being imported to fuel power stations in the EU. To meet growing international demand for palm oil, Indonesia and Malaysia plan to double their oil palm plantations area to 18-22 million hectares, an area more than five times the size of the Netherlands. A recent study by Friends of the Earth showed that there are grave environmental and social problems on palm oil plantations.

EPAs: Trade unions criticise the Commission’s lack of flexibility

As African and European trade unionists demonstrate in Brussels today against current Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) says in a statement, that these Agreements being negotiated between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries require fundamental changes in order to promote genuine trade and development opportunities for the ACP. In the demonstration today, several hundred people mainly from Senegal and Europe are coming together to gather in front of the European Commission to protest against the current EPA negotiations. Civil society organisations from Senegal including the ITUC affiliates CNTS, CSA, CNTS-FC, UDTS and UNSAS, as well as employers’ organisations and several NGOs are taking part.

Despite growing opposition to EPAs from the ACP, the European Commission has not showed much flexibility in the negotiation process. Using the argument that a WTO waiver expired at the end of 2007, the European Union is currently insisting that ACP countries not in a position to sign full EPAs should at least initial interim agreements whereby they would accept to liberalise at least 80% of their trade in goods and commit themselves to further negotiations on opening up in services, investment, public procurement and competition policies.

At its General Council meeting in December 2007, the ITUC adopted a resolution on EPAs denouncing the lack of adequate time devoted to the negotiation process, leading some governments to sign up to interim agreements that may undermine existing regional integration processes, cause serious employment losses and deprive governments of tariffs revenues vitally needed for public services and investment. In its resolution the ITUC calls upon the EU to refocus its negotiating objectives towards obtaining real development for the African, Caribbean and Pacific states. The ITUC is equally concerned by the lack of a social dimension in the current draft agreements. Indeed, to avoid trade between the ACP and Europe leading to the exploitation of workers, it is essential that all parties to EPA agree to uphold workers’ fundamental rights such as the right to form trade unions and to bargain collectively. Yet, as of this date the inclusion of a social chapter has not been accepted by the West African region. This remains a source of serious concern to all trade unions both in Europe and in the ACP.