As the world prepares for the UN Climate Change Conference beginning 
Dec. 1 in Poznan, Poland, we must send a clear, loud message opposing 
any role for the World Bank in an international climate regime. Please 
add your organization’s name to the sign-on statement below (in English 
and Spanish) to help deliver this most important message. The World Bank 
is already positioning itself to control climate financing.
*The deadline for sign-ons is Friday, December 5.* Please send 
organizational endorsements to statements@foe.org 
<mailto:statements@foe.org>. (While we appreciate the efforts of 
individuals, this sign-on statement is only open for endorsement by 
organizations.) Please also include the country in which your 
organization is based.
Our plan is to release the sign-on statement during the second week of 
the climate talks to maximize press coverage. We will then use the 
statement as a lobbying and rallying tool in the negotiations and beyond.
For more background about the World Bank and its current climate 
initiatives, please see “The World Bank and Climate Change” at 
http://www.foe.org/Climate_Investment_Funds/WorldBank-ClimateOverview.pdf.
Please help us circulate this statement far and wide so we get the 
maximum number of organizations signed on.
In solidarity and gratitude,
Karen Orenstein, Friends of the Earth and Nicola Bullard, Focus on the 
Global South --- on behalf of Africa Jubilee South, Campagna per la 
Riforma Della Banca Mondiale, CEE Bankwatch Network, Daughters of Mumbi 
Global Resource Center, Fahamu - Networks for Social Justice, Focus on 
the Global South, Friends of the Earth International, Jubilee South - 
Asia/Pacific Movement on Debt and Development., Oil Change 
International, Pacific Environment , Sustainable Energy and Economy Network
* *
*Poznan** Declaration:*
*World vs. Bank*
Nations are gathering in Poznan, Poland under the United Nations 
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). To meet their 
obligations towards developing countries and repay their climate debt, 
industrialized countries must agree to appropriately and adequately 
finance adaptation, mitigation, and technology development and transfer. 
The World Bank Group is positioning itself to control key financial 
mechanisms of the UNFCCC.  We, the undersigned organizations, oppose any 
World Bank role in an international climate change convention regime, 
for the following reasons:
Ø      *The World Bank is a major climate polluter. *Despite professed 
concern regarding climate change, the World Bank Group is actually 
increasing its support for fossil fuel projects.* *From 1997-2007, the 
World Bank financed 26 gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions – about 45 
times the annual emissions of the UK. In the last year, the World Bank 
Group has increased lending for coal, oil, and gas by 94%, totaling over 
$3 billion. Coal lending alone increased 256% in the last year. The 
World Bank’s own 2004 Extractive Industries Review recommended an 
immediate end to coal financing and a phase out of investments in oil 
production by 2008 and found that "…oftentimes the environment and the 
poor have been further threatened by the expansion of a country's 
extractive industries sector." Yet in April 2008, the Bank approved a 
$450 million loan for a massive 4,000 megawatt coal project in India, 
expected to be one of the 50 largest greenhouse gas emitters in the 
world. Given the World Bank’s existing and increasing support for fossil 
fuels, it is an inappropriate institution to lead the fight against 
global climate change.
Ø      *The World Bank is a major deforester.* Deforestation accounts 
for some 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but the Bank continues 
to promote industrial logging and agrofuels. A 2007 World Bank 
Inspection Panel report strongly criticized the Bank’s support for 
industrial logging and violating the rights of indigenous Pygmy and 
other forest-dependent communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 
home to the second largest tract of rainforests in the world. Throughout 
tropical rainforest areas, the International Finance Corporation (IFC)– 
the private sector lending arm of the World Bank Group - finances soy 
and oil palm plantations and cattle ranching, as well as financing 
shrimp farming in mangrove forests. The IFC has a long record of support 
for livestock-based agribusiness, with US $732 million in investment 
over a 6-year period for livestock production projects. The UN Food and 
Agriculture Organization estimates that the livestock sector is 
responsible for 18% of global warming emissions.
Ø      *The World Bank is a major rights violator.* Numerous communities 
throughout the world – from those impacted by the Chad-Cameroon pipeline 
to the Nam Theun 2 Hydropower Project in Laos – have suffered human and 
environmental rights violations as a direct result of World Bank-backed 
projects.
Ø      *The World Bank is an undemocratic institution.* Its one 
dollar-one vote decision-making marginalizes Southern countries, and the 
United States simply chooses the Bank’s president.
Ø      *The World Bank’s recent climate initiatives are severely flawed. *
·        The World Bank’s recently launched Climate Investment Funds 
(CIFs) undermine UN climate negotiations, compete for funding with 
already established UN adaptation and technology funds, promote dirty 
industries like coal as clean energy, and force developing countries to 
pay for the industrialized world’s pollution by providing loans for them 
to adapt to the climate crisis they did not create. Rather than treating 
the provision of climate financing as binding obligations by 
industrialized countries to developing countries under the UNFCCC, the 
CIFs are designed within a fundamentally unequal aid framework of donor 
and recipient. This is particularly odious given the large historical 
/ecological debt/ owed by industrialized countries to developing 
countries.  Though the CIFs have been described as new sources of 
funding by the World Bank, G8 governments have made clear that they are 
considered as part of Official Development Assistance, and thus are not 
new and additional.
·        The World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), 
enabled by the Forest Investment Program, will include forests in 
dubious carbon offsetting schemes that allow industrialized countries 
to buy their way out of meaningful emissions reductions. In violation of 
the Bank’s own policies, the FCPF has failed to ensure meaningful 
participation of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in its design. 
·        In 2007, less than 10% of the Bank’s carbon finance was 
allocated to solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and mini hydropower. 
Energy efficiency captured 80% of the money allocated to purchase 
emissions reductions credits, the majority of which went to a single 
project in China to reduce emissions by burning off HFC-23, a potent 
greenhouse gas byproduct. The generation of carbon credits from HFC-23 
destruction has been sharply criticized.
*/We call on the World Bank and its donors to immediately stop financing 
fossil fuels./*
*/ /*
*/We further call on governments to:/*
·        Reject the role of the World Bank in an international climate 
regime.
·        Establish a financing mechanism fully accountable to the UNFCCC 
– based on equity and in accordance with the historical and current 
responsibilities of industrialized countries – with predictable, new and 
additional funding directly accessible to recipient countries.
·        Invest massively in clean, safe and decentralized renewable 
energy, demand side energy efficiency and sustainable transport.
·        Ensure forests are not included in carbon markets.
·        Recognize and enforce customary and territorial land rights of 
Indigenous Peoples and forest-dependent communities as the basis of any 
forest policy.
·        Support forest conservation by promoting national programs and 
infrastructure that provide direct support to rights-based, 
community-driven forms of forest conservation, sustainable management 
and ecosystem restoration.
·        Ensure that monoculture tree plantations are excluded from the 
definition of "forests," and from any mechanisms, policies and 
incentives that might be established to conserve forests or halt 
deforestation and forest degradation.
·        Address the drivers of deforestation, including agrofuels; the 
excessive consumption of products such as meat, pulp and paper; and the 
destructive practices of logging and fossil fuel extraction.  
Signed:
Africa Jubilee South
Campagna per la Riforma Della Banca Mondiale
CEE Bankwatch Network
Daughters of Mumbi Global Resource Center
Fahamu - Networks for Social Justice
Focus on the Global South
Friends of the Earth International
Jubilee South - Asia/Pacific Movement on Debt and Development.
Oil Change International
Pacific Environment
Sustainable Energy and Economy NetworDear Friends -

As the world prepares for the UN Climate Change Conference beginning
Dec. 1 in Poznan, Poland, we must send a clear, loud message opposing
any role for the World Bank in an international climate regime. Please
add your organization's name to the sign-on statement below (in English
and Spanish) to help deliver this most important message. The World Bank
is already positioning itself to control climate financing.

*The deadline for sign-ons is Friday, December 5.* Please send
organizational endorsements to statements@foe.org
. (While we appreciate the efforts of
individuals, this sign-on statement is only open for endorsement by
organizations.) Please also include the country in which your
organization is based.

Our plan is to release the sign-on statement during the second week of
the climate talks to maximize press coverage. We will then use the
statement as a lobbying and rallying tool in the negotiations and beyond.

For more background about the World Bank and its current climate
initiatives, please see "The World Bank and Climate Change" at
http://www.foe.org/Climate_Investment_Funds/WorldBank-ClimateOverview.pd....

Please help us circulate this statement far and wide so we get the
maximum number of organizations signed on.

In solidarity and gratitude,

Karen Orenstein, Friends of the Earth and Nicola Bullard, Focus on the
Global South --- on behalf of Africa Jubilee South, Campagna per la
Riforma Della Banca Mondiale, CEE Bankwatch Network, Daughters of Mumbi
Global Resource Center, Fahamu - Networks for Social Justice, Focus on
the Global South, Friends of the Earth International, Jubilee South -
Asia/Pacific Movement on Debt and Development., Oil Change
International, Pacific Environment , Sustainable Energy and Economy Network

* *

*Poznan** Declaration:*

*World vs. Bank*

Nations are gathering in Poznan, Poland under the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). To meet their
obligations towards developing countries and repay their climate debt,
industrialized countries must agree to appropriately and adequately
finance adaptation, mitigation, and technology development and transfer.
The World Bank Group is positioning itself to control key financial
mechanisms of the UNFCCC. We, the undersigned organizations, oppose any
World Bank role in an international climate change convention regime,
for the following reasons:

Ø *The World Bank is a major climate polluter. *Despite professed
concern regarding climate change, the World Bank Group is actually
increasing its support for fossil fuel projects.* *From 1997-2007, the
World Bank financed 26 gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions - about 45
times the annual emissions of the UK. In the last year, the World Bank
Group has increased lending for coal, oil, and gas by 94%, totaling over
$3 billion. Coal lending alone increased 256% in the last year. The
World Bank's own 2004 Extractive Industries Review recommended an
immediate end to coal financing and a phase out of investments in oil
production by 2008 and found that "...oftentimes the environment and the
poor have been further threatened by the expansion of a country's
extractive industries sector." Yet in April 2008, the Bank approved a
$450 million loan for a massive 4,000 megawatt coal project in India,
expected to be one of the 50 largest greenhouse gas emitters in the
world. Given the World Bank's existing and increasing support for fossil
fuels, it is an inappropriate institution to lead the fight against
global climate change.

Ø *The World Bank is a major deforester.* Deforestation accounts
for some 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but the Bank continues
to promote industrial logging and agrofuels. A 2007 World Bank
Inspection Panel report strongly criticized the Bank's support for
industrial logging and violating the rights of indigenous Pygmy and
other forest-dependent communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo,
home to the second largest tract of rainforests in the world. Throughout
tropical rainforest areas, the International Finance Corporation (IFC)-
the private sector lending arm of the World Bank Group - finances soy
and oil palm plantations and cattle ranching, as well as financing
shrimp farming in mangrove forests. The IFC has a long record of support
for livestock-based agribusiness, with US $732 million in investment
over a 6-year period for livestock production projects. The UN Food and
Agriculture Organization estimates that the livestock sector is
responsible for 18% of global warming emissions.

Ø *The World Bank is a major rights violator.* Numerous communities
throughout the world - from those impacted by the Chad-Cameroon pipeline
to the Nam Theun 2 Hydropower Project in Laos - have suffered human and
environmental rights violations as a direct result of World Bank-backed
projects.

Ø *The World Bank is an undemocratic institution.* Its one
dollar-one vote decision-making marginalizes Southern countries, and the
United States simply chooses the Bank's president.

Ø *The World Bank's recent climate initiatives are severely flawed. *

· The World Bank's recently launched Climate Investment Funds
(CIFs) undermine UN climate negotiations, compete for funding with
already established UN adaptation and technology funds, promote dirty
industries like coal as clean energy, and force developing countries to
pay for the industrialized world's pollution by providing loans for them
to adapt to the climate crisis they did not create. Rather than treating
the provision of climate financing as binding obligations by
industrialized countries to developing countries under the UNFCCC, the
CIFs are designed within a fundamentally unequal aid framework of donor
and recipient. This is particularly odious given the large historical
/ecological debt/ owed by industrialized countries to developing
countries. Though the CIFs have been described as new sources of
funding by the World Bank, G8 governments have made clear that they are
considered as part of Official Development Assistance, and thus are not
new and additional.

· The World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF),
enabled by the Forest Investment Program, will include forests in
dubious carbon offsetting schemes that allow industrialized countries
to buy their way out of meaningful emissions reductions. In violation of
the Bank's own policies, the FCPF has failed to ensure meaningful
participation of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in its design.

· In 2007, less than 10% of the Bank's carbon finance was
allocated to solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and mini hydropower.
Energy efficiency captured 80% of the money allocated to purchase
emissions reductions credits, the majority of which went to a single
project in China to reduce emissions by burning off HFC-23, a potent
greenhouse gas byproduct. The generation of carbon credits from HFC-23
destruction has been sharply criticized.

*/We call on the World Bank and its donors to immediately stop financing
fossil fuels./*

*/ /*

*/We further call on governments to:/*

· Reject the role of the World Bank in an international climate
regime.

· Establish a financing mechanism fully accountable to the UNFCCC
- based on equity and in accordance with the historical and current
responsibilities of industrialized countries - with predictable, new and
additional funding directly accessible to recipient countries.

· Invest massively in clean, safe and decentralized renewable
energy, demand side energy efficiency and sustainable transport.

· Ensure forests are not included in carbon markets.

· Recognize and enforce customary and territorial land rights of
Indigenous Peoples and forest-dependent communities as the basis of any
forest policy.

· Support forest conservation by promoting national programs and
infrastructure that provide direct support to rights-based,
community-driven forms of forest conservation, sustainable management
and ecosystem restoration.

· Ensure that monoculture tree plantations are excluded from the
definition of "forests," and from any mechanisms, policies and
incentives that might be established to conserve forests or halt
deforestation and forest degradation.

· Address the drivers of deforestation, including agrofuels; the
excessive consumption of products such as meat, pulp and paper; and the
destructive practices of logging and fossil fuel extraction.

Signed:

Africa Jubilee South

Campagna per la Riforma Della Banca Mondiale

CEE Bankwatch Network

Daughters of Mumbi Global Resource Center

Fahamu - Networks for Social Justice

Focus on the Global South

Friends of the Earth International

Jubilee South - Asia/Pacific Movement on Debt and Development.

Oil Change International

Pacific Environment

Sustainable Energy and Economy Network