Divest the Globe And the Action Network – 2017-10-14 16:46:45
https://actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/divest-the-globe
Jackie Fielder (Lakota, Mandan, Hidatsa) and Rachel Heaton (Muckleshoot) of Mazaska Talks. (Photo: Ayse Gursoz)
Divest from Oil and Coal:
Mazaska Talks Global Day of Action (Oct 23rd-25th)
Divest the Globe And the Action Network
Join Jackie Fielder and Rachel Heaton! Fight against climate change and support Indigenous rights by hosting an action in your community during the Mazaska Talks Global Day of Action (Oct 23rd-25th)
For far too long, banks have operated in the shadows — financing the very industries that are driving climate disaster and violating Indigenous rights. The time has come to finally hold these financial institutions across the world accountable. The fossil fuel divestment movement that struck like wildfire at Standing Rock has now been taken global. Will you join #DivestTheGlobe?
Indigenous leadership is critical to the climate movement. As Jackie Fielder of Mazaska talks says:
“Divestment has been a tactic for a just transition away from fossil fuels for a long time, but the only reason why it’s gained such momentum in the past year is because people put their bodies on the land, right in front of militarized law enforcement.
“The only reason why we are talking about this a year later is because of Standing Rock and Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous peoples are the canaries in the coal mine when it comes to climate change.”
On October 23rd, ninety-two of the world’s largest banks will meet in São Paolo, Brazil to discuss policies on the climate and Indigenous People’s rights to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). These banks include financiers like JPMorgan Chase — the #1 Wall Street funder of tar sands, the dirtiest oil on the planet.
Indigenous-led coalition Mazaska Talks is calling on allies everywhere to join in a movement for 3 days of mass global action. Banks need to know that financing climate disaster and the abuse of Indigenous Peoples is not an acceptable business practice.
Divest the Globe from Mazaska Talks on Vimeo.
Actions can look as unique as your community: a protest at a bank branch, a vigil, actions to divest your city from Wall Street banks, a march, rally, and so much more . . .
RAN and network allies will continue to put pressure on JPMorgan Chase, as we take our #DefundTarSands fight directly to their front doors.
ACTION: Tell the Big Banks: Stop Financing
Climate Disasters and Respect Indigenous Rights
https://petitions.signforgood.com/EquatorBanksAct/?code=MT
This October, more than 90 of the world’s largest banks will meet in Brazil to recommit to the Equator Principles, a set of rules guiding which big infrastructure projects they will and won’t finance.
These “Equator banks” have all promised to avoid or minimize the social, environmental and climate impacts of such projects, and to respect the rights and interests of Indigenous communities affected by them. However . . .
These Principles for banks to follow sound good — but they’re not working.
The Principles as they are written now are not stopping banks from financing disaster projects that are destroying our climate. Nor are these Principles stopping banks from trampling on the rights of Indigenous peoples, fully recognised in international law, to reject projects they do not want in their territories.1
The US Dakota Access Pipeline, fiercely opposed by the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Lakota Tribes, and the Honduran Agua Zarca hydro project, where Indigenous leader Berta Cáceres was murdered for leading the Lenca people’s opposition to the project, are but two examples of projects financed by banks under the Equator Principles.
Now is the time for them to act on their supposed principles. They must stop financing climate change and respect Indigenous peoples’ rights. Sign now to demand that they make commitments to change.
ACTION: Sign Here to Demand that the Equator Banks act decisively when they meet October 24 in São Paulo, Brazil, and commit to stop financing climate disasters and respect Indigenous peoples’ rights and land.
We call on the Equator Principles Association to agree in Brazil to a full revision process for the Principles, so that they reflect at minimum two solid commitments:
* Stop financing climate disasters:
* Include a full commitment to the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global temperature rise to below 2 degrees, aiming for 1.5 degrees;
* Include stringent and binding criteria that all projects to be financed under the Equator framework be fully aligned with reaching the Paris Agreement goals; and for this reason:
* Explicitly exclude all new fossil fuel extraction, transportation and power projects from financing under the Equator Principles.
* Respect Indigenous peoples’ rights and territories:
* Include an explicit commitment to uphold the right of Indigenous peoples to give or deny free, prior, and informed consent for projects situated on territories they traditionally use and occupy;
* Commit to not financing projects, neither directly or indirectly, that did not obtain such consent;
* Strengthen due diligence and consultation processes to ensure that Indigenous peoples’ rights are fully respected;
* Ensure that Indigenous peoples and other project-affected communities have full access to grievance channels with project sponsors and financing banks when their rights and interests are violated.
1. Coal power plants, coal mines, tar sands exploration and transport, oil pipelines, fracked gas plants, deepwater oil rigs, oil exploration in the Arctic, and more have all qualified as ‘responsible’ projects under the Equator Principles, as have projects that violate international Indigenous rights.
From the Americas to Australia, Indigenous peoples find themselves on the front line of struggles against fossil fuel extraction and transport projects, and also large hydro and other infrastructure projects that threaten their lands and way of life.
Action Toolkit Here
* Divest Your Community: Launch a campaign to divest your community from pipeline banks! (Divest Your Community Guide here.)
* Disrupt Bank Business as Usual: organize individuals to shut down their accounts at local branches of banks that finance the repression of indigenous rights & desecration of the Earth; occupy space inside a bank or at a bank’s headquarters; disrupt business at a bank branch of one of the banks financing new fossil fuel projects. (list of banks here.)
* Draw Attention to Local Desecration Projects: conduct a non-violent, direct action (examples: sit-in, vigil, trash clean-up, tree-planting, art gallery) at a fossil fuel infrastructure project in your area
Send your questions & media inquiries to jackie@mazasktalks.org.
Further Resources:
https://www.equatorbanksact.org
https://mazaskatalks.org/divesttheglobe
https://www.ran.org/banking_on_climate_change
https://www.banktrack.org/search#category=dodgydeals
In solidarity,
Tess Geyer, Climate and Energy Organizer
Rainforest Action Network
