The management response to the Extractive Industries Review (EIR) - described by development and environment campaigners as "completely inadequate" - was accepted by the board of the World Bank at the beginning of August. The management response rejected calls in the review for a phase-out of support for oil and coal, made merely symbolic gestures towards increasing support for renewables, and watered down language on the rights of indigenous peoples to oversee extractive developments on their l
Indigenous peoples
Environment
News
Two decades of environmental and social protection policies at risk
Bank watchers fear that a new plan to harmonise Bank environmental and social safeguard policies with national rules will sacrifice years of hard-won policy provisions "in one big sweep".
Rights
News
Nam Theun 2: Decision pending serious problems remain
The deadline for the Bank's decision to finance the controversial Nam Theun 2 hydroelectric power project in Lao PDR is fast approaching. However, long-term opponents of the project predict that its environmental and social outcomes will be disastrous, and criticize the current consultation process as fundamentally flawed.
Rights
News
Private sector safeguard review "fundamentally flawed"
Civil society organisations have expressed alarm at the process recently launched by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) - the World Bank Group's private sector lending arm- to overhaul its safeguard policies.
Rights
News
Bank board accepts status quo in oil and gas
The management response to the Extractive Industries Review (EIR) - described by development and environment…
Rights
News
Indigenous issues still unresolved
Indigenous leaders have said that a meeting with the World Bank legal team was inadequate.
Environment
News
Indigenous Peoples Policy delayed
On 20 October, World Bank Vice President Ian Johnson responded to Extractive Industries Review Eminent Person Emil Salim confirming that the Bank will delay finalisation of the Indigenous Peoples Policy until the first quarter of 2004.
Environment
News
UK MPs support Bushmen
A motion signed by 42 MPs urges the UK government to encourage Botswana to respect the rights of Botswana's Bushmen.
Environment
News
Activists oppose Bank ‘clean development’ credits for Brazilian forest plantation
One of the first pilot projects using the World Bank's climate change carbon trading programmes has come under fire from local groups for endorsing destructive tree plantations.
Environment
Commentary
Chad-Cameroon: oil and poverty reduction don’t mix
Despite World Bank involvement, the Chad Cameroon petroleum project has confirmed that under authoritarian regimes there is a fundamental incompatibility between poverty alleviation objectives and oil exploitation activities.