BANKS DODGY DEALS CAMPAIGNS
About BankTrack
20 years of BankTrack – Our history
Visit us
Organisation
Our team
Our board
Guiding principles
Team up with us
Jobs at BankTrack
Our annual reports
Funding and finances
BankTrack in the media
Our privacy policy
Donate
2023-09-18 00:00:00
New report and blog: Barclays' bond with Adani
2023-08-23 00:00:00
Decarbonization: steel not making the cut
2023-07-27 00:00:00
Two months ago 62 organizations and 3 Goldman Environmental Prize winners wrote an Open Letter to the TNFD: No one responded
2023-07-13 00:00:00
The Sustainable Steel Principles: One step forward when leaps are needed
2023-09-15 17:34:10
The number of major banks refusing to support EACOP reaches 24
2023-07-31 14:30:01
Equator Principles recognise projects’ risk to climate for the first time
2023-05-17 14:30:30
EACOP Financial Advisor SMBC is no longer involved with the project
2023-03-28 13:43:00
French bank Société Générale withdraws from Rio Grande LNG
Connect
2023-09-18 00:00:00
Barclays' bond with Adani
2023-06-26 00:00:00
How should financiers align with the Global Biodiversity Framework? Five Key Principles
2023-04-13 00:00:00
Banking on Climate Chaos 2023
2023-04-12 00:00:00
The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP): Finance Risk Update No. 4
See all publications
Sections
Banks Dodgy Deals Campaigns
Our campaigns
Banks and Climate
Banks and Human Rights
Banks and Nature
Banks and Pandemics
Our projects
Tracking the NZBA
End Coal Finance
Banks and Putin's war in Ukraine
Banks and steel
Tracking the Equator Principles
Tracking the PRBs
Find a Better Bank
Banks and the OECD Guidelines
Media
News Publications
Fossil Banks No Thanks StopEACOP Forests & Finance Banks & Biodiversity Drop JBS Bank of Coal Don't Buy into Occupation
BankTrack
About BankTrack 20 years of BankTrack – Our history Visit us Organisation Our team Our board Guiding principles Team up with us Jobs at BankTrack Our annual reports Funding and finances BankTrack in the media Our privacy policy Donate
Successes Contact BankTrack
Donate Mailing list Facebook Twitter Login
Home › BankTrack news ›
BankTrack News

As a 20th anniversary gift, we've made the Equator Principles a complaints channel

2023-06-04 | Nijmegen
By: BankTrack
Contact:

Ryan Brightwell, BankTrack: ryan@banktrack.org

Photo: BankTrack
2023-06-04 | Nijmegen
By: BankTrack
Contact:

Ryan Brightwell, BankTrack: ryan@banktrack.org

As a birthday gift to the Equator Principles on their 20th anniversary today, BankTrack has launched an online complaints channel for the framework. This follows two decades in which the Equator Principles, a bank-led initiative for managing environmental and social risk in project finance, have been in existence without such an essential mechanism in place.

The new online tool allows communities affected by large infrastructure projects financed by banks under the Equator Principles to raise complaints about environmental impacts and human rights violations that they consider have resulted from non-compliance with the Principles. When complaints are received, BankTrack will review these and send them to the Equator Principles Association, together with all Equator banks involved in financing the project. BankTrack will also support complainants where possible by seeking to ensure their concerns to be addressed by the financiers, and by publishing complaints made.

The complaints channel has been created to draw attention to the continued absence of an official grievance mechanism by which communities affected by Equator projects can bring complaints to the attention of its governing body, the Equator Principles Association (EPA) or to the Equator banks involved in financing the project.

BankTrack Executive Director Johan Frijns commented: “As well as being a fitting birthday present for the Equator Principles Association, this website will genuinely provide a platform for communities to raise problems they encounter as a result of bank financed projects with Equator banks and the EPA. But sadly, there is no firm guarantee this mechanism will indeed see complaints addressed. For that, we need the Equator Principles Association banks to step in and set up their own accountability processes, as they should have done 20 years ago.”

UN human rights principles for businesses set out that industry initiatives such as the Equator Principles should ensure such grievance mechanisms are in place so that complaints can be raised when the commitments made are not met. While the Equator Principles Association has argued that projects financed under the Equator Principles are required to have project-level grievance mechanisms, Equator banks do not participate in these mechanisms and they do not allow complaints about whether banks have kept to their promises.

The complaints channel is especially necessary as some of the world’s most controversial and damaging projects, including the Dakota Access Pipeline in the United States and the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam in Honduras, have received financing under the Principles. TotalEnergies has also claimed its controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project in Uganda and Tanzania will comply with the Equator Principles.

Notes for editors

The Equator Principles (EPs) are a risk management framework, created and adopted by financial institutions, for determining, assessing and managing environmental and social risks in financing projects. Currently, 138 Equator Principles Financial Institutions (EPFIs) in 38 countries worldwide have officially adopted the EPs. They were formally launched in Washington, DC on June 4th, 2003. See www.equator-principles.com.

The complaints channel is available at www.equator-complaints.org. 

The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights set out in Principle 30 that “Industry, multi-stakeholder and other collaborative initiatives that are based on respect for human rights-related standards should ensure that effective grievance mechanisms are available.” The Commentary adds that such a mechanism should be able to assess compliance “when believe the commitments in question have not been met.”

An open letter sent to the Equator Principles Association by 79 civil society organisations and partners in 2019, provides more detailed arguments regarding the reasons for, and benefits of, a grievance mechanism at the level of the Equator Principles Association.

For an analysis of the EACOP against the Equator Principles, see this briefing paper. For further information on the projects mentioned here and their financiers, see BankTrack’s Dodgy Deal profiles on the Dakota Access Pipeline, Agua Zarca Dam and EACOP.

Sections
Banks Policies Dodgy Deals Campaigns
Our campaigns
Banks and Climate Banks and Human Rights Banks and Nature Banks and Pandemics
Our projects
Tracking the NZBA End Coal Finance Banks and Putin's war in Ukraine Banks and steel Tracking the Equator Principles Tracking the PRBs Find a Better Bank Banks and the OECD Guidelines
Media
News Publications
Fossil Banks No Thanks StopEACOP Forests & Finance Banks & Biodiversity Drop JBS Bank of Coal Don't Buy into Occupation
BankTrack
About BankTrack 20 years of BankTrack – Our history Visit us Organisation Our team Our board Guiding principles Team up with us Jobs at BankTrack Our annual reports Funding and finances BankTrack in the media Our privacy policy Donate
Successes Contact BankTrack
Vismarkt 15
6511 VJ Nijmegen
The Netherlands
Contact@banktrack.org
Donate Mailing list Facebook Twitter
©2023 BankTrack
BankTrack is a registered charity in the Netherlands (ANBI) - RSIN 813874658
Find our privacy policy here

Stay up to date

Sign up now for all BankTrack's news


Make a comment

Your comment will be reviewed, before being posted