Banks| Policies| Dodgy Deals| Campaigns
About us| Blog| Publications| Successes| Contact us| Donate
About BankTrack
Visit us
Organisation
Our team
Our board
Guiding principles
Team up with us
Jobs at BankTrack
Our annual reports
Funding and finances
History
BankTrack in the media
Our privacy policy
Donate
2023-02-07 00:00:00
What COP15 means for banks: meeting the Global Biodiversity Framework requires protecting Indigenous rights and divesting from harmful industries
2023-01-23 00:00:00
Berta Cáceres: new rules for banks could help stop defender killings
2023-01-16 00:00:00
In the balance: Why European due diligence legislation must cover financial services
2022-12-08 00:00:00
Exposed: Western banks funding Qatar’s carbon bombs
2022-12-14 11:08:26
HSBC announces it will no longer finance new oil and gas fields
2022-10-13 15:56:39
More major banks and insurers refuse to support EACOP
2022-09-16 10:38:48
European Parliament passes emergency resolution against human rights violations & environmental threats linked to EACOP
2022-06-27 09:49:16
Crédit Agricole takes first step to phase out from the oil and gas sector
Connect
2022-11-22 00:00:00
Banking on Thin Ice: Two years in the heat
2022-11-17 00:00:00
BankTrack Global Human Rights Benchmark 2022
2022-10-21 00:00:00
Burning forests in the name of clean energy? How banks are failing to exclude the harmful wood biomass industry from finance
2022-06-28 00:00:00
The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP): Finance Risk Update No. 3
2022-04-05 00:00:00
The BankTrack Human Rights Benchmark Asia
2022-03-30 00:00:00
Banking on Climate Chaos 2022
See all publications
Browse
Home
Banks
Policies
Dodgy Deals
Campaigns
About
About BankTrack
Donate
Contact BankTrack
Publications
Victories
Follow Us
News
BankTrack blog
Facebook
Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Instagram
Affiliate Websites
Fossil Banks No Thanks
StopEACOP
Forests & Finance
Banks & Biodiversity
Drop JBS
Bank of Coal
Don't Buy into Occupation
Home › News
Equator Principles: Principles, Profits or just PR?
NGOs ask hard questions at anniversary of Bank Standards
Start
Dodgy Deals

By: Friends of the Earth US
2004-06-03
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Contact:

Amsterdam, BankTrack, Johan Frijns, +31-6-12421667, +31-20-6868111
San Fransisco, Friends of the Earth US, Michelle Chan-Fishel +1 202 427 3000
London, Friends of the Earth, Simon McRae, +44-20-75661670


Share this page:

Photo: Equator Principles
Go to:
Start
Related Dodgy Deals

One year after the launch of the Equator Principles (EP), a bank-led initiative to establish common environmental and social standards for project finance, NGOs have released an assessment on the implementation and effectiveness of the Principles so far.

A new BankTrack report, titled “Principles, Profits, or Just PR? Triple P investments under the Equator Principles”, examines whether the Principles have promoted a ‘Triple P’ approach to investments, balancing People, Profit and Planet in a way that is truly sustainable, or whether they are perhaps a mere PR effort.

The report examines the current situation on project, institutional and group level. Based on the limited information publicly available, it finds that generally implementation of the EPs has been poor to middling. It also concludes that despite the existence of the Principles, many controversial projects went ahead virtually unaltered.

“Since the launch of the Equator Principles in June 2003, NGOs have grown increasingly impatient with the unwillingness of the banks to share information and engage with stakeholders. Due to this secrecy, it is impossible for the public or even the endorsing banks themselves to properly assess whether the Principles are being implemented or making a difference.” said Johan Frijns, coordinator of BankTrack, an international network of advocacy NGOs monitoring the Equator banks. “Every now and then the EP website heralds the signing of yet another bank onto the Principles, but we are not seeing results on the ground, nor evidence that the EP are being fully implemented by all the endorsers”

The report analyzes several key transactions financed by Equator banks in the past year, such as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

“Both BankTrack and the Equator banks point to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline as a key test case for Equator Principles implementation,” said Greg Muttit of UK-based PLATFORM, who analyzed how the pipeline violated the Principles on over 30 counts. “The banks claimed that the pipeline complied with the principles, but refused to say how and why. As a result, few saw the banks’ claim as credible, Now, the pipeline’s continuing ethical, legal and human rights problems clearly show the extent of the banks’ failure to apply the Principles”

The report mentions several additional controversial deals financed by Equator banks, such as the Kárahnjúkar hydro project in Iceland, and flags upcoming projects as the Sahkalin II oil and gas project in the Russian Far East, the Omkareshwar dam in India and the Nam Theun II dam in Laos as a severe test case for the good faith application of the Principles.

The report further describes the attempt of eleven Equator banks to block proposals designed to improve the ability of World Bank extractives investments to serve the poor.
“One of the most distressing things we have seen this year is how Equator banks have formed themselves into a lobby group to block pro-poor reforms at the World Bank,” said Simon McRae of Friends of the Earth UK. “Certainly Equator banks have a right to express their own opinion, but when they band together to become obstructionists it deals a blow to their integrity”.

The report provides anecdotes of strategies that individual Equator banks have employed to implement the Principles at their own institutions, and finds that there is wide variation in how banks have “mainstreamed” the Principles into their management systems.

It concludes with several recommendations to restore a sense of good faith in the principles, notably the adoption of an Independent Accountability, seek active stakeholder engagement in the implementation of the EPs, be transparent on investment decisions based on the EPs and provide leadership for the continuous improvement and implementation of the Principles.

“This report, and the recommendations it contains, signals that NGOs still have some hope for the Principles, and that we want to see them work,” said Michelle Chan-Fishel of BankTrack/Friends of the Earth US. “However, if the Equator banks continue to finance controversial deals, pursue an anti-environmental lobbying agenda and cloak themselves in secrecy and unaccountability, public confidence will be irretrievably lost.”

Go to:
Start
Related Dodgy Deals

Related Dodgy Deals

Projects

There are no projects active for this item now.
on record

Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline Azerbaijan

Pipeline Transportation of Crude Oil
on record

Nam Theun 2 dam Laos

Hydroelectric Power Generation
on record

Sakhalin II oil and gas project Russian Federation

Oil and Gas Extraction
Browse
Home
Banks
Policies
Dodgy Deals
Campaigns
About
About BankTrack
Donate
Contact BankTrack
Publications
Victories
Follow Us
News
BankTrack blog
Facebook
Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Instagram
Affiliate Websites
Fossil Banks No Thanks
StopEACOP
Forests & Finance
Banks & Biodiversity
Drop JBS
Bank of Coal
Don't Buy into Occupation
Vismarkt 15
6511 VJ Nijmegen
The Netherlands

Tel: +31 24 324 9220
Contact@banktrack.org
©2016 BankTrack                Webdesign by BankTrack and EASYmind
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