BankTrack releases 2013 Annual Report
Johan Frijns, BankTrack coordinator - johan@banktrack.org
Ryan Brightwell, BankTrack researcher and editor - ryan@banktrack.org
Johan Frijns, BankTrack coordinator - johan@banktrack.org
Ryan Brightwell, BankTrack researcher and editor - ryan@banktrack.org
We are very pleased to announce the release today of our Annual Report for 2013.
The report gives a concise summary of the activities and achievements of the BankTrack network in 2013. It includes an update on five of our main campaigns: Banks and Palm Oil, Banks and Human Rights, Coal Banks, Chinese Banks and Tracking the Equator Principles. It also gives details on the most important Dodgy Deals tracked by the network in 2013, including the Agua Zarca dam in Honduras, the POSCO steel project in India, and the Coal and Gas Projects near Australia's Great Barrier Reef. And it gives an overview of the bank-focused work of our member and partner organisations around the world.
Some highlights include:
- Since the start of 2013 we have welcomed five new organisations to the BankTrack network: Japan Center for a Sustainable Environment and Society (JACSES) and World Development Movement as members, and Facing Finance, London Mining Network and the European Environmental Paper Network as partners.
- Together with urgewald, CEE Bankwatch Network and the Polish Green Network, we launched the Banking on Coal report at the UN Climate Change Conference in Warsaw, part of a growing campaign urging banks around the world to quit the dirty coal industry.
- We lobbied the banking sector to develop stronger policies on climate change and human rights, through engagement with Equator Principles and Thun Group banks.
- Our campaigning helped score victories for the environment and society as the Pascua Lama gold mine on the border of Chile and Argentina and the HidroAysen dam in Chile were both suspended, Coal India's share offer collapsed, and a number of US and European Banks stepped back from finance for Mountaintop Removal coal mining.
You can download the report here.