Tar Monsters on the loose!
Hello Tar Monster Thwarters!
There has been an incredible flurry of action in the past 48 hours as we escalate efforts to stop the UK from blocking the Fuel Quality Directive (FQD). And these are just the highlights! For more updates, check our facebook and twitter pages.
- Lewes tackles the Tar Monster
- HM Department for Tar Sands blockaded
- RBS caught out for climate greenwash
- Love oily paintings – hate oily money
Keep up the good work everyone – we’re nearly there!
Sue and Emily
1. Lewes tackles the Tar Monster
On Saturday we whizzed down to Lewes to meet up with our friends from South Coast Climate Camp, People and Planet, Lush, and Friends of the Earth Lewes. Residents and local activists sent a clear message to their MP Norman Baker that his move to block climate policy and further the interests of the tar sands industry is not on! As part of the Tar-Free Lewes campaign, Lush have had an image of Norman Baker tarred up in their stores in Brighton for the past week.
Continuing the theme of novelty-sized props, this action was characterized by an incredible giant tar monster puppet. Weaving its way around the Lewes High Street, the monster entertained dozens of children while their parents were illuminated about the metaphorical monstrosities happening in Alberta. The local community was shocked to hear that its formerly “eco” MP is now using wrecking tactics on essential climate policy. Many residents signed a petition to be sent to Norman ahead of the vote taking place in Brussels on Friday.
2. HM Department for Tar Sands blockaded
Norman Baker has insisted that he is trying to create an even more effective fuel policy than the one on the table. Yet, as was reiterated by this morning’s new evidence, Baker’s desire to delay the current proposal and research every fuel under the sun plays right into the hands of government and industry lobbyists. If tar sands wasn’t dominating the news enough already today, Greenpeace this morning blockaded the Department for Transport and rebranded it the Department for Tar Sands. This further escalates the campaign as we approach the EU member state vote this Friday, where we will see just how successful Baker has been at diluting other states’ climate policies. To have a go at steering Norman Baker in the right direction yourself, take People & Planet’s e-action.
3. RBS caught out for climate greenwash
Earlier this year you may remember that Climate Week‘s launch event was gatecrashed by dancing Greenwash Guerrillas. As part of a coalition of groups we pointed out the absurdity of RBS – the seventh largest global funder of tar sands companies – sponsoring an event claiming to be tackling climate change. Until very recently the company looked set to be a headline partner in 2012, but just a few days ago we heard RBS has “decided not to renew its sponsorship of Climate Week” ! This is a great boost to the campaign, in the words of Platform, “it prevents RBS from fending off mounting public pressure over its climate-trashing finance portfolio by saying, “how can we be the climate bad guys – we’re sponsoring Climate Week?””
Now we just need to get them to stop funding tar sands…
4. Love oily paintings – hate oily money
If you are free tomorrow night, join us as we help Platform celebrate the release of a great publication: ‘Not if but when: Culture Beyond Oil’. The beautifully designed ‘bookette’ discusses oil sponsorship of the arts and showcases images of all the amazing creative interventions that have been taking place to save our beloved art institutions from the stench of oil sponsorship. Don’t worry if you can’t make it down, you can still get involved by signing onto this letter calling on Nick Serota to dump BP sponsorship, or ordering a copy of ‘Not if but when: Culture Beyond Oil’.
First Nations protest Tar Sands investments at RBS AGM
Representatives from some of Canada’s First Nations today demanded in person that the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) stops financing the controversial tar sands industry in Alberta, Canada, at the bank’s AGM. The protest came as new research, published by a coalition of UK and North American NGOs, shows that since being bailed out with public money in 2008, RBS has raised £5.6 billion in corporate financing to companies involved in Alberta’s tar sands extraction and tar sands pipeline development, including BP and Enbridge.
The First Nations representatives took into the AGM a photo petition and motions from UK taxpayers angry that the bank is investing their money in tar sands extraction, and used the meeting to call on the board to cease financing tar sands companies. Many First Nations communities are fighting extensive tar sands extraction on their tribal lands in Alberta, as well as the proposed 1,170 kilometre long Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline from Alberta to the British Columbian coast, which will pass through the territories of http://www.youandifilms.com/2011/04/human-cost/.
One of the First Nations representatives attending the AGM was Jasmine Thomas from the Yinka Dene Alliance, which is actively resisting the RBS-financed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline. RBS was the fourth bank warned by the Yinka Dene Alliance over the past two months for its involvement in raising funds for Enbridge and its failure to adopt ethical policies that respect the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples who may be impacted:
“RBS has provided finance to Enbridge, which wants to build its Northern Gateway tar sands pipelines through our territories, to carry oil through many of our critical salmon-bearing rivers. A spill will happen – Enbridge has over 60 pipeline spills each year. A single spill could destroy our way of life and our culture, so 80 First Nations in British Columbia have said NO to the pipeline. I’m here to warn RBS shareholders of the legal and environmental risks of financing such controversial tar sands companies, and to ask them to withdraw all corporate financing to Enbridge.”
Clayton Thomas-Muller, from Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, representing the Indigenous Environmental Network, also attended the AGM. He said: “Banks in Canada and in the US have been put on notice for their dirty finance of the Canadian tar sands which is resulting in the destruction of First Nations Peoples’ way of life. The UK’s RBS, being a majority publicly-owned bank, should be under the greatest scrutiny for its involvement in financing the Canadian tar sands and more specifically the Enbridge corporation and its controversial proposed Northern Gateway tar sands pipeline.”
As shareholders arrived for the AGM they were greeted by a troupe of ‘oily bankers’, already drunk on the black stuff and draped across RBS’s massive logo – who were in fact campaigners from the UK Tar Sands Network, Friends of the Earth Scotland, World Development Movement Scotland and People & Planet.
After the First Nations delegation – which also included Melina Laboucan-Massimo from the Lubicon Cree in Northern Alberta – had asked their questions, got extremely unsatisfactory responses, and other shareholders had vented their spleen at RBS’s lack of profits and enormous executive pay packets, the stormy AGM came to a close. The First Nations were invited into a meeting with RBS’s head of sustainability where they were able to have a more detailed discussion about their concerns face to face with Sandy Crombie, a member of the board.
View some of the media coverage here:
Independent – RBS faces AGM protest over tar sands cash
Guardian – RBS oil sands investments ‘not sound’
STV – RBS accused of being involved with ‘dirty finance’
Herald- Protesters demand halt to bank’s tar sands financing
BP and RBS targetted by Tar Sands Tour
Dear AGM-stormers,
A lot has happened since our last newsletter: our First Nations crew (Clayton, Jasmine and Melina) have arrived, we’ve made new friends from various corners of the world, been dragged out of the Excel Centre, gained a load of media coverage and kept tar sands well and truly on BP’s agenda. And, best of all, we’ve been labelled ‘winners’ by the Financial Times! What a week!
But the fun continues, as we’ve just arrived in Edinburgh to give RBS a piece of our minds! A big thank you to everyone who has helped make the Tar Sands Tour so successful.
- Tar Sands Tour so far… BP pandemonium
- Now it’s RBS’s turn
Love from the Tar Sands Tour Team,
Emily, Jess, Sue, Melina, Jasmine, Clayton and Felix
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1. Tar Sands Tour so far… BP pandemonium
Tuesday: “Calling BP to account”
An excellent start to an insane week, our launch event at Rich Mix saw an unusual alliance form between investors, First Nations representatives, fishermen and women from the Gulf of Mexico, NGOs and activists, all driven by a common anger with BP and passion to take action.
Thursday: BP AGM
BP’s AGM was, shall we say, eventful… There were protests, arrests and a global media feeding-frenzy. It all added up to one hell of a PR own goal for BP. Read the whole story and watch a hilarious video of the action we took that got ten of us kicked out of the AGM.
Friday: Transition Heathrow workshop
After pausing for a few hours to catch our breath, we headed over to visit the lovely folks at Transition Heathrow in the evening, for a tar sands workshop, a screening of the new film ‘Tipping Point’, and an inspiring and fruitful discussion about how we can link up in working towards positive alternatives to dirty oil.
Sunday: The Great BP-Sponsored Sleep-in
Returning to London’s heart and centre of art, we targeted the Tate Modern with Rising Tide’s Great BP-Sponsored Sleep-In. Spot Steve’s teddy in this film of the action, which our film crew (Felix from You and I Films) edited on the train on the way up to Scotland (above).
2. Now it’s RBS’s turn
Today, our friends at Rainforest Action Network have released some red-hot new research: since being bailed out by UK taxpayers in 2008, RBS has raised more than £5.6 billion for companies operating in the tar sands. A whopping £1.2 billion of that total was raised in the last six months, at a time when the UK is experiencing devastating public spending cuts to pay off the deficit caused by the bank bailout. This makes us hopping mad. If only there was a way for us to communicate that to RBS… 
Today: People’s AGM
This evening, we will join with our friends from WDM, Friends of the Earth Scotland, People & Planet, PLATFORM and SEAD to hold a ‘People’s AGM’ where we will pass all the motions that the real AGM will continue to ignore.
Tuesday: RBS AGM:
We will return to RBS’s HQ (verdant site of 2010’s Climate Camp) to have a presence both inside and outside the AGM. Inside, Jasmine Thomas will challenge RBS for its involvement in financing Enbridge, which is trying to build a pipeline right through her community. Outside, activists will engage with shareholders.
Follow us on twitter for the latest updates and photos of our shenanigans: @NoTarSands
Tar Sands Tour Revealed!
Tuesday 12th April, 7pm
Calling BP to Account – Tar Sands, Deepwater Horizon and beyond…
Rich Mix, 35 – 47 Bethnal Green Road, London, E1 6LA
You are invited to a public meeting in advance of BP’s AGM, that will bring together a diverse coalition of individuals and organisations who are working together to call BP to account for the social and environmental impacts of their activities around the world. Join First Nations from Canada, fishermen and women from the Gulf of Mexico, shareholders, NGOs, lawyers and activists for an evening of information sharing and strategising, on the eve of BP’s Annual General Meeting (14th April).A chance to listen to first-hand accounts of how BP’s decision to go into the Alberta tar sands will affect indigenous communities, the local environment and the global climate. A chance to hear from those whose livelihoods have been destroyed by the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. And a chance to build stronger links between different campaigns and strategies working to restrain the destructive activities of one of the world’s oil giants.
Calling BP to Account – Invitation
Please RSVP to info@no-tar-sands.org
Co-hosted by Greenpeace, PLATFORM, FairPensions and Rising Tide.
Thursday April 14th, 10:30 am
BP AGM
We will be inside and outside BP’s Annual General Meeting with a clear message: ‘don’t go into the Tar Sands.’ If you would like to join us email info@no-tar-sands.org
Friday April 15th, 7pm
Tipping the Balance – Tar Sands, Indigenous Rights and Community Resilience workshop and film screening.
Grow Heathrow, Vineries Close, Sipson, West Drayton, UB7 0JG
Indigenous activists resisting the Alberta Tar Sands will join with Transition Heathrow for a workshop on building community resilience and the UK Premiere of the new documentary: Tipping Point – The Age of the Oil Sands!
What are the Tar Sands? Learn more about the Tar Sands giga-project and the growing resistance. What have they got to do with us in the UK? Learn about how the UK is involved in the tar sands and the vibrant movement in the UK working in solidarity with First Nations community members to shut down the tar sands. Building community resilience: The resistance to extractive destructive mining, response to peak oil and airport expansion all require the re-envisioning how our communities work together both locally and internationally.
8:30 pm UK Premiere Tipping Point: The Age of the Oil Sands!
This documentary takes us to the heart of the struggle of resistance to the world’s largest industrial project. Not to be missed!
Sunday 17th April, 2pm
BP and Culture: Time to Break It Off!
Tate Modern, London
In the week between BP’s AGM on April 14th and the one year anniversary of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill on April 20th, we are calling for actions and creative interventions to show the true nature of BP’s damaging activities around the world, and to persuade our most prestigious galleries and cultural spaces to liberate themselves from BP’s dirty money. On the anniversary of the Gulf spill, let’s reveal the sticky black stuff behind BP’s shiny green logo, and pile on the pressure to kick BP out of our cultural spaces for good. We will join the Rising Tide, Liberate Tate, Climate Camp London, Climate Rush and Art Not Oil for a day of action against extraction.
Monday April 18th 7-9pm
Clean the Banks! RBS People’s AGM
Edinburgh University Chaplaincy, Edinburgh
Canada’s tar sands are the biggest energy project in the world, creating pollution ponds visible from space, felling the ancient boreal forests and threatening indigenous people’s rights. From this test-bed, the industry is now expanding globally; to Madagascar, Venezuela and Congo. After a massive public bailout RBS continues to provide finance for companies mining tar sands around the world. On the eve of the RBS AGM in Edinburgh this event is a vote against UK tax money financing fossil fuels!
Indigenous people in Canada are fighting ‘the most destructive project on earth’ – the extraction of oil from tar sands and the building of a super-pipeline through their ancestral lands. Hear their stories first hand and learn what we can do to cure RBS of its oil addiction and help stop tar sands spreading to other parts of the world.
FREE, register here.
Organized with WDM, Indigenous Environmental Network, People & Planet Edinburgh, UK Tar Sands Network, Friends of the Earth Scotland, Platform and SEAD.
Tuesday April 19th, 10:30 am
RBS AGM
First Nations community member will be inside RBS’s Annual General Meeting to raise their concerns with banks investment in the destruction of their homelands.
Climate Week, and big BP and RBS events
Dear Greenwash Guerrillas,
We’re very excited to be able to invite you along to two major events as part of our First Nations speaker’s tour in April. If you only come to one tar sands event this year, make it one of these! But first, a word about someone else’s sponsors…
1. Climate Week ‘tar’-getted over RBS sponsorship
2. BP meeting and plans for the AGM
3. RBS and the ‘People’s AGM’
Love and sunshine,
Sue, Jess and Emily
1. Climate Week ‘tar’-getted over RBS sponsorship
On Monday we, and some like-minded friends, turned up at the launch of RBS-sponsored Climate Week. We were there to warn people about the dangerously high levels of greenwash spewing from the plush venue. We flyered every single person who attended the event (apart from a few grumpy folk who wouldn’t take one), talked to many about our concerns with RBS, and did some singing and dancing.
Our protest – and a report released by Platform on the same day that found that, since being bailed out by taxpayers, RBS has financed £8 billion (!) of coal investments – meant that RBS’s dirty portfolio is now firmly back in the public eye.
You can read the whole story here: Climate Week ‘Tar’-Getted by Anti Greenwash Protest
2. BP meeting and plans for the AGM
We would like to invite you to ‘Calling BP to account – Tar Sands, Deepwater Horizon and beyond…’ This event, part of our First Nations’ speaker tour, will take place on 12th April 2011, 7pm, at Rich Mix in London, just before BP’s AGM on the 14th. It will bring together a diverse coalition of individuals and organisations who are working together to call BP to account for the social and environmental impacts of their activities around the world. Join First Nations from Canada, fishermen and women from the Gulf of Mexico, shareholders, NGOs, lawyers and activists for an evening of information sharing and strategising. It should be an amazing event!
More information here. Please please please RSVP to info@no-tar-sands.org so we know how many people are coming. Check out the Facebook event and invite people along!
Also, we need more people to help with our presence outside the BP AGM on the 14th. If you’re able to come to the Excel Centre in London Docklands for a couple of hours around 10ish on Thursday 14th April, please let us know!
3. RBS and the ‘People’s AGM’
After we’ve hit BP’s AGM we’re travelling with our First Nations friends up to Scotland for RBS’s AGM on the 19th April. The evening before (Monday 18th), there will be an alternative ‘People’s AGM’ in Edinburgh with an opportunity to hear from the First Nations representatives directly about the terrible impact of RBS’s investments. The event is being organised by WDM Scotland, Friends of the Earth Scotland, People & Planet and SEAD.
Email us at info@no-tar-sands.org for more information, or keep an eye on our website and we will post details when they become available, as well as details of other events happening as part of the tour.
- March 21, 2011
- 2 Comments
- Latest Updates, RBS
Climate Week ‘Tar’-getted by anti-greenwash protest!
The UK Tar Sands Network and friends gathered this morning outside the Climate Week launch event at Lancaster House, to protest against its sponsorship by RBS, the UK bank that has been most heavily involved in financing the fossil fuel industry.
While Energy and Climate Secretary Chris Huhne was inside presenting awards for action on climate change, the protesters were outside, wearing badges saying ‘Love climate action, hate greenwash’, and handing leaflets to attendees that highlighted the involvement of RBS in financing companies involved in tar sands extraction. Tar sands has been the subject of international controversy for its impact on both the climate and indigenous communities.
Some protesters sang songs about RBS’s dirty reputation, and did the “oily Gaga” dance made famous at the Edinburgh Climate Camp. Meanwhile, ‘Greenwash Guerrillas’ dressed in white biohazard suits detected dangerously high levels of toxic greenwash emanating from the building. Every attendee was given a flyer explaining why it is ridiculous that the UK’s biggest financer of fossil fuels is sponsoring a major climate event.
Climate Week has already been embarrassed by a report that was published earlier in the morning that indicated that RBS is the UK bank that has been involved in providing the most finance to the 20 biggest coal mining and coal-power generators in the last three years.
Sam Chase, one of the protesters outside the Climate Week launch, said:
“It’s great that people all over the country are taking action on climate change, but all these efforts are dramatically undermined when a huge financial institution like RBS is ploughing so much money into fossil fuel companies. Unless RBS is prepared to rein in its massive financing of tar sands in Canada and coal companies across the world, it shouldn’t be allowed to be associated with initiatives like Climate Week.”
Climate Week has also seen a number of groups either decide not to take part in the initiative, or withdraw from it as a result of the RBS sponsorship. Comedian and impressionist, Alastair McGowan, withdrew his initial endorsement from the event, saying:
“Climate Week is celebrating the successes of ordinary citizens and businesses in bringing down their carbon emissions at the same time as its main sponsor, RBS, is doing more than any other bank to undermine those self-same efforts. It’s high time RBS put its money where its mouth is, and stopped bankrolling the fossil fuel industry.”
Climate Week has also generated a lot of online controversy. A substantial proportion of tweets about the event express concern about the connection with RBS – and with some of the other sponsors, particularly EDF Energy. EDF runs two of the UK’s biggest coal power stations and is vigorously pushing dangerous and costly nuclear power as a climate ‘solution’. An online poll carried out by campaigning group People & Planet has also been satirising the Climate Week Awards by inviting people to vote for the Greenwash Coup of the Year 2011, and a number of groups have confirmed that they will be hosting events targeting RBS’s fossil fuel finance as part of Climate Week.
Some of the Climate Week award nominees have also expressed their concerns. UKYCC were nominated for three awards and won one, but also released the following statement: “In the case of RBS in particular, we feel that sponsoring this event without withdrawing their heavy investment in Alberta’s massively damaging tar sands development is grossly hypocritical. We echo many others in calling on RBS to divest from this practice.”
‘Climate Week’, sponsored by… RBS?!
Dear greenwash-detectors,
We’re spending a lot of time gearing up for the BP and RBS AGMs next month, liaising with First Nations in Canada and those affected by the Deepwater Horizon spill, planning public events, working with a whole range of different groups, and figuring out what we can do at the two AGMs to really hold those responsible for such wanton destruction to account.
But we keep getting distracted. Because next week (21st March) is Climate Week. And it’s being sponsored by RBS. Which we think is absolutely outrageous. So here’s a short message with info about all these things:
1. Climate Week: vote for the Greenwash Coup of the Year!
2. BP & RBS AGMs – events and activities
3. CETA still needs beating – take action now
Also, we’ve finally sorted out a way to donate through our website (thanks to Daniel, our wily web wizard). If you like what the UK Tar Sands Network is doing and want to support us, please consider giving us a donation, however small. We promise to make every penny we get go an extremely long way!
Love not corporate sponsorship,
Emily, Sue and Jess
1. Climate Week: vote for the Greenwash Coup of the Year!
Having a week in which everyone takes climate action is of course a Good Thing. Every week should be like that. But if you invite RBS, Tesco and EDF to sponsor it and then plaster their logos over every piece of material you send into schools, businesses and communities, what kind of message does that send about the causes of and solutions to climate change?
A confusing one, at the very least. A misleading one, definitely. A dangerous one? We think so. RBS is responsible for more carbon emissions than any other UK bank. It is one of the leading financers of fossil fuel projects around the world, and is the 7th largest global financer of tar sands companies. As a result, its reputation has taken a bit of a battering lately. So Climate Week is the ideal way for it to buy itself a better green rep whilst still continuing to destroy the planet.
Well, we’ve noticed this audacious move, and so have lots of other people. Here’s a Guardian article which quotes us, a blistering blog from Danny Chivers, a spot-on statement from Artists Project Earth, and an awesome, slightly tongue-in-cheek poll from People & Planet. We wouldn’t presume to tell you who you should vote for in P&P’s ‘Greenwash Coup of the Year 2011’ awards (such a strong field, after all), but you can probably guess who we went for!
2. BP & RBS AGMs – events and activities
April sees both BP’s and RBS’s Annual General Meetings, and we plan to be at both, with some of our First Nations partners from Canada. More info soon on a whole series of events and actions you can get involved in, but here are a few definite dates for your diaries:
19th March (next Saturday) – Shareholder activism training day
Check it out on Facebook! It will feature a planning session for the BP AGM. There are still spaces and we would love to see you there. RSVP to juliette.daigre@fairpensions.org.uk or 020 7403 7800.
12th April – BP event and First Nations speaker tour launch
Big public meeting in London, an opportunity to hear from a wide range of critics of BP, and to meet our First Nations visitors in advance of the BP AGM. If you would like to help us publicise it or can help on the night, please email info@no-tar-sands.org and we will love you forever.
14th April – BP AGM, Excel Centre, London
Lots of us have bought shares and are planning what we’re going to be doing inside. It’s not too late for you to join us! If you want to buy a share, email info@no-tar-sands.org and we’ll connect you with our broker…There will be a London Rising Tide presence outside the AGM – so also let us know if you don’t have a share but would like to join us there.
15th April – CETA International Day of Action
We will be taking action in London (sorry, non-Londoners) simultaneously with actions in Canada and, we hope, Brussels, to stop the tar sands trade talks. Keep the day free if you can and watch this space for more info.
19th April – RBS AGM, Edinburgh
We are working with a group of organisations including WDM Scotland and Friends of the Earth Scotland to organise a ‘people’s AGM’ in advance of the official AGM. Get in touch if you can help organise things up in
Edinburgh.
3. CETA still needs beating – take action now
We really need to multitask at the moment, because tar sands threats are rearing up from many different directions. If you haven’t taken our e-action to keep Europe out of the Tar Sands, please do so now. It only takes a minute and it’s really important. Thank you!
First Nations Activists at the Edinburgh Fringe rally RBS to leave the Tar Sands in the Ground!
Originally posted September 8th, 2010
The UK Tar Sands Network and the Indigenous Environmental Network joined forces with the Camp for Climate Action in 2010 to raise awareness about UK investment in the Alberta Tar Sands. Indigenous activists Jasmine Thomas and Riannon Ball from British Colombia, Canada are resisting the sprawl of the world’s most destructive project into their territories. They brought their message loud and clear to RBS that investments in the Tar Sands are destroying their traditional homelands and pushing the planet further into Climate Chaos.
