Images will be added throughout the day here.
The Indigenous Women’s Divestment Delegation, organized by the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), traveled from the United States and Canada to the heart of Switzerland’s financial district. They represent Indigenous Peoples from the Oglala Lakota and Mdewakantonwan Dakota, the Diné/Navajo, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Louisiana’s United Houma Nation and Canada’s Tsleil-Waututh Nation.
“Our goal is clear, there must be justice and accountability for banks and corporations. Indigenous Peoples are in danger, we need Europeans to act, to divest, to organize within their respective nations to make their banks accountable for Indigenous human rights abroad. We need Europe to stand and fight alongside us,” said Diné/Navajo human rights lawyer Michelle Cook.
The Delegation was joined in Zurich by Klimaseniorinnen (Senior Women for Climate Protection), a people-powered movement of Swiss citizens over 65 who are suing the Swiss Government for its inaction on climate change.
“Kinder Morgan investors need to know there is great uncertainty in the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project. I am traveling with the Delegation to share the immense risks we are asked to bare and how committed we are to oppose this project,” said Charlene Aleck, Elected councillor for Tsleil Waututh Nation, Sacred Trust Initiative, Canada.
Today’s protest is the latest in a growing international movement to stand up for Indigenous and human rights, and take climate action against pipeline companies like Energy Transfer Partners, Kinder Morgan, Enbridge and TransCanada, along with the banks that fund them. These pipeline corporations are going to extreme lengths to silence those who oppose their social and environmental wrongdoings. For instance, Energy Transfer Partners sued groups like Greenpeace International and Greenpeace USA in North Dakota for nearly a billion dollars for supporting the Indigenous-led movement opposing the Dakota Access pipeline.
Greenpeace Switzerland published a new report today that revealed that, per capita, Swiss banks provide more funding for fossil fuel companies than any other European country.
From 2015 to 2017, Credit Suisse and UBS provided more than $12 billion in finance for fossil fuel companies, such as tar sands, deep sea oil, coal mining and coal-fired power plants. That works out at $1,470 for every Swiss citizen over the past three years.
“We have taken action against the [Swiss] Federal Government because it’s doing too little to stop global warming. But Credit Suisse and UBS have a responsibility too. Banks must immediately stop lending to companies that exploit particularly dirty fossil fuels such as oil from tar sands,” said Elisabetta Dregde from Klimaseniorinnen.
Major banks around the world are already pulling out of projects that fuel climate change. HSBC, Europe’s biggest bank, is the latest to say it won’t fund new pipelines dedicated to the tar sands sector. French banks BNP Paribas and Natixis, Dutch bank ING, insurance and investment giant Axa and Sweden’s largest pension fund, AP7, all made similar announcements in 2017.
“Credit Suisse and UBS are continuing to gamble with our climate. Nature, our environment and the people affected tend to pay dearly for the short-term vision and greed of both banks. As long as extreme fossil fuels are still being produced, the carbon bubble and the financial climate risks will grow. These banks must take responsibility and break free from fossil fuels,” said Greenpeace Switzerland’s financial expert Katya Nikitenko.
Activists from Greenpeace Switzerland are calling on the major Swiss banks to submit plans by the end of this year, outlining how they will bring all their financial flows in line with the Paris climate agreement.
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Notes to editors:
[1] Click here for images from the Zurich protest at the banks’ headquarters, or copy the following link to your browser: https://media.greenpeace.org/shoot/27MZIFJXTA1WF
[2] Click here to access the English version of Greenpeace Switzerland’s report on fossil fuel financing, or copy the following link to your browser: https://www.greenpeace.ch/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Greenpeace-Fossil-Fuel-Age-English-Final-Screen-2.pdf
[3] Click here to access WECAN’s press release for more quotes and details on the Indigenous Women’s Divestment Delegation (including headshots), or copy the following link to your browser: http://wecaninternational.org/news/1892/press-release_-indigenous-women%E2%80%99s-delegation-to-europe-continues-push-for-fossil-fuel-divestment-by-major-banks
Media contact in the U.S.:
Rodrigo Estrada, [email protected], 202-478-6632
