Home > Press releases > 2002
01 Jun 2002
Today marks ten years since the beginning of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Talks to prepare for the 2002 Johannesburg summit are now taking place in Bali. But progress has been slow or non-existent, because of obstruction by northern developed countries and by the United States in particular, on a range of key environmental and social issues.
Above all, the US and others are opposing any moves towards corporate accountability – despite growing demands for an international agreement to
Friends of the Earth today publishes details of “Ten Planet
Trashers”, companies whose behaviour since Rio shows
the need for binding rules on corporate behaviour.
The companies are:
1. EXXON MOBIL (Esso)
This company deserves to be at the top of any record of corporate irresponsibility, for its persistent and continuing attempts to prevent effective international action against dangerous man-made climate change. ExxonMobil was one of the prime movers behind George W Bush’s decision to snub the Kyoto climate treaty last year and has run a 10 year campaign (often through font groups such as the Global Climate Coalition) against scientists and politicians who think we should reduce our dependence on oil, coal and gas.
2. AMEC
British construction company AMEC intended to be part of a consortium
to build the planned Yusefeli dam in Turkey. If built, the Yusufeli
Dam would flood 18 towns and villages, drown the homes of 15,000 people
and displace a further 15,000. Affected communities have not been properly
consulted and adequate plans for resettlement have not been made. AMEC
withdrew from the Yusufeli construction consortium in March 2002, following
a commercial review of the project, but continues its involvement in
the project through its 46% shareholding in European construction firm
SPIE. AMEC is also involved in the planned Chalillo Dam in Belize, as
well the building of the environmentally destructive Birmingham Northern
Relief Road.
3. PREMIER OIL
This UK based oil exploration company continues to operate in Burma,
even though the Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the UK
government, human rights and environment groups have all criticised
Premier for its involvement in a country ruled by one of the world’s
most brutal military dictatorships. The company is also exploring for
gas in Kirthar National Park, Pakistan, even though the activity was
illegal when Premier first submitted its plans. Local people believe
that pressure from Premier led to a weakening of Pakistani wildlife
law.
4. ICI
ICI in Wilton, Teesside is the UK=s largest producer of the >gender bender= chemical alkylphenol ethoxylates. As part of its >clean-up= operation ICI simply pumps rinsing water from the reaction vessel straight into the River Tees without any form of treatment. ICI estimates that this results in 12 tonnes of the chemical entering the river each year. The River Tees flows into the Teesmouth Flats and Marshes, recognised as an internationally important wildlife site. Alkylphenol ethoxylates are used in industrial detergents even though safer alternatives are available, yet ICI claims that they will Amanufacture only those products that can be transported, used and disposed of safely.@
ICI in Runcorn, Merseyside has been highlighted as the Aworst performing site in Britain@ in a recent report commissioned by Friends of the Earth. The report revealed that the site does not even have the most basic environmental safeguards (for example, containment around chemical plants to capture spillages), uses out of date and polluting technologies (even though ICI have developed and marketed cleaner processes) and that from just 3 of the 18 different processes they operate there were around 250 unauthorised releases over an 18 month period.
5. SCOTTS
US corporation Scotts had to be promised “compensation” of £17 million by the UK Government earlier this year to stop destroying three of the UK’s top wildlife sites through peat extraction. The sites covered by the deal are Thorne Moor Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Hatfield Moor SSSI, both in South Yorkshire, and Wedholme Flow SSSI in Cumbria.
6. BARCLAYS
An investigation by Friends of the Earth has discovered that the Barclays Group has used its customers' money to finance Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), one of the most destructive paper companies in the world. APP is clearing a large area of Indonesian rainforest and is involved in numerous land disputes with indigenous peoples. APP is responsible for clearing over 280,000 hectares of rainforest in the last 10 years and is planning to clear-cut another 300,000 hectares over the next 5 years. This means that in total APP will have cleared an area of wildlife rich rainforest four times the size of Greater London.
7. ASSOCIATED OCTEL
Associated Octel is one of the biggest releasers of cancer-causing chemicals in the UK (see FOE’s Factorywatch project at www.foe.co.uk) and the world’s largest manufacturers of lead additives for fuel. These products are banned in the US and across Europe but still sold by the company to developing countries.
8. AVENTIS/BAYER
Biotech company Aventis Crop Science UK Ltd is currently involved in a court case to block the publication of herbicide safety data by the Government. Aventis Crop Science UK Ltd want to use the herbicide, Liberty, to treat GM winter maize - despite safety concerns that it will enter the ground water.
Aventis Crop Science UK Ltd is currently being purchased by the pesticide company Bayer – who also have a poor record for environmental pollution. The company has been accused of dumping highly toxic unlabelled pesticides in Nepal, posing a threat to the health of local people, risking contamination of the water supply and the soil. The company has been asked by the Royal Nepalese Government to help clean up the site - but has so far refused to do so.
9. BNFL
British Nuclear Fuels continues to lobby for an expanded civil nuclear power
programme in the UK, Authoritative research by the Sussex University
Science Policy Research Unit suggests that the company may seek a write
off by the taxpayer for between £15.4 and £3.1 billion in
corporate liabilities for this dangerous and uneconomic technology.
BNFL recently opened the “THORP” reprocessing plant at Sellafield.
Current Government estimates are that the level of Intermediate Level
Nuclear Waste (ILW) will rise to 136,000 cubic metres by 2010. BNFL
figures provided to the Government show that this amount would rise
to 256,000 cubic metres if BNFL succeeds in reprocesses the amount of
overseas spent fuel identified in the 1996/7 Business Plan for the THORP
plant.
10. ASSOCIATED BRITISH PORTS
ABP is seeking permission to build a 202 hectare on Dibden Bay SSSI near Southampton. The proposed development is an important site for wildlife with international and national >protection=
Commenting, FOE Policy Director Tony Juniper said:
“It is ten years to the day since the Rio Earth Summit. Over the last ten years we have seen big corporations in the developed world behave in a socially and environmentally destructive way in their own countries and particularly in the developing world. The case for common and binding standards of corporate behaviour has never been stronger. Yet the United States and other developed countries seem to have gone to the talks in Bali determined to see that no further progress is made. Citizens must make it clear to Governments that they want corporations brought under control as a matter of urgency.”
Contact details:
Friends of the Earth
26-28 Underwood St.
LONDON
N1 7JQ
Tel: 020 7490 1555
Fax: 020 7490 0881
Web: www.foe.co.uk/feedback.html
Media team
