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Bank Of America Investment International investment banks are lobbying the World Bank to rebuff the recommendations of an independent study that urged the global lender to bail out of gas, oil and mining projects.

These institutions', American Development Bank, World Bank, U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation, U.S. Import Bank, $352 million in approved financing for 18 projects; thus, fossil fuel financing in the Americas outpaces clean energy by a ratio of 63 to 1. Most of this investment in fossil fuels has come from US taxpayers, who are unwitting underwriters of loans, guarantees and subsidies to Big Oil. Although the Americas have obtained over $22 billion in public support for fossil fuels since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, most of this oil and gas has been exported to the U.S.

Investment Opportunity According to a leaked letter sent to World Bank President James Wolfensohn and seen by IPS, several investment banks that lend for such projects want the World Bank to reject the findings of the Extractive Industries Review (EIR), an effort to assess the bank's heavily criticised support for mining and energy projects.

The scary thing is that even if a country doesn' World Bank can potentially scare away foreign investments.

Banc Of America Investment The EIR submitted its final report to the World Bank on Jan. 16, urging the world's largest public lender to stop funding extractive industries like coal and oil by 2008, and to shift its investments to cleaner renewable energy instead.

based centre says that an independent jury cited ABN AMRO's work in helping to inspire, create and implement the Equator Principles for the award. The episode comes amidst global concern over climate change and the role played by oil and gas projects in raising the earth's temperatures and damaging the world's ecosystems. American Development Bank, which lends to Latin American nations from its headquarters in Washington, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have all come under fire for funding projects in the environmentally damaging extractive industries like oil, gas and mining.

Banking Investment Among its many recommendations is a call for the bank to implement "much more effective social and environmental policies".

The world's oil supply will outlast global demand, remaining relatively inexpensive and becoming cleaner to burn, the chairman of the nation's third largest oil company predicted. Archie Dunham, chairman of ConocoPhillips Inc., - crude oil, - long before the world depletes those primary energy sources. ``The world can rely on fossil fuels for the bulk of its energy needs for the next 100 years, '' Dunham said Wednesday at a Tulsa luncheon, adding, ``the oil age will end long before the world will run out of oil.''

Investment Solution Strategic But in their undated letter, the banks argue the review ignores that extractive industries remain critical to global economic growth and poverty reduction and that, in some countries, the sectors generate important revenues that finance government programmes.

Meanwhile, environmental groups want ABN Amro and all other Equator banks to withdraw their support for Sakhalin II. But despite concerns from green groups, public lenders and private banks are clamouring to fund oil and gas projects, hungry countries such as the United States, Japan and members of the European Union, who are also major shareholders in public banks. The United States, the main customer for the Sakhalin project, has been encouraging oil projects almost anywhere outside of the Arab Gulf as it tries to lessen its dependence on Middle Eastern oil, citing the region's instability and its population's anger at U.S. policies.

Investment Banking Services "We believe that the EIR has not given sufficient consideration to the fact that the extractive industries are essential to global economic growth and poverty reduction," says the letter.

Bank Investment The investment banks form what is called the Equator Principles group -- some 20 international investment banks that have adopted the World Bank Safeguard Policies and Sector Guidelines, created to help banks manage social and environmental issues related to the financing of development projects.

Alternative Investment The guidelines make recommendations on how to deal with such issues as natural habitat, indigenous peoples, involuntary resettlement, dam safety and cultural sites.

Online Investment Services The Equator Banks, which include world names like ABN AMRO Bank, Barclays, Citigroup, Crdit Lyonnais, Credit Suisse Group, Dresdner Bank and Royal Bank of Canada, sometimes co-finance projects with the World Bank in extractive industries and related sectors.

Accompany Essential Investment Collectively they were responsible for 54 billion dollars worth of financing for such projects in 2003.

Investment Company The banks say they are worried that if the World Bank withdraws from extractive industries, the move could have a ripple effect on private capital. World Bank involvement in a development project has often been seen as a green light for other lenders to get on-board.

Investment Management Solution They also warn that the bank's pullout could result in lower standards of governance and operations by companies carrying out some of the more challenging projects.

Investment Management Services The banks argue that projects like the 1,070-km Chad-Cameroon pipeline in Central Africa and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline in the Caspian region are exemplary models for development.

Guide Investment Stock The World Bank has provided loans for the two projects despite loud protests from civil society groups who say the pipelines harm the environment and have already displaced indigenous populations.

Investment Manual Solution The letter also seeks to discredit renewable energy, such as wind and solar, as a possible alternative to non-renewables, arguing that many are not yet commercially viable and that economies of scale will not allow renewables to play a significant role in meeting current or expected future energy needs.

Investment Stock The banks' letter has infuriated environmentalists and other activists. They charge that the lenders are preventing the World Bank from possibly adopting even higher standards of corporate conduct.

Essential Investment Solution "The Equator Banks are acting like wolves in sheep's' clothing," said Daphne Wysham, a fellow with the Institute for Policy Studies, in a press release.

Citicorp Investment Services "Though wearing the outer trappings of higher standards, this letter reveals the Equator Banks actually trying to impede the World Bank's attempt at implementing higher social and environmental standards."

Fool Guide Investment Motley "They are playing an obstructionist role in the recommendations that are for the World Bank not for them," added Michelle Chan-Fishel, programme manager of the green investments project of Friends of the Earth -- U.S.

Fidelity Investment Services She argued that the World Bank is obligated to heed the EIR's recommendations. "The World Bank has a development mission and is dedicated supposedly to alleviating poverty. (The investment banks) trying to get in the way of that is really inappropriate".

Investment Management Support for the review has been gaining momentum. On Apr. 2, more than 100 parliamentarians worldwide, and the European Commission, called for the full implementation of the EIR recommendations.

Francisco Investment San In March, six Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including landmines activist Jody Williams and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, also wrote Wolfensohn to urge that the World Bank adopt the EIR recommendations.

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