If correct, there is no making sense of this. It flies in the face of the World Bank’s own devastating report on Climate Change…
“Radical plans by the World Bank to relax the conditions on which it lends up to $50bn £29bn a year to developing countries have been condemned as potentially disastrous for the environment and likely to weaken protection of indigenous peoples and the poor.A leaked draft of the banks proposed new “safeguard policies”, seen by the Guardian, suggests that existing environmental and social protection will be gutted to allow logging and mining in even the most ecologically sensitive areas, and that indigenous peoples will not have to be consulted before major projects like palm oil plantations or large dams palm go ahead on land which they traditionally occupy.Under the proposed new “light touch” rules, the result of a two year consultation within the bank, borrowers will be allowed to opt out of signing up to employment safeguards, existing protection for biodiversity will be shredded, countries will be allowed to assess themselves, and harmful projects are much more likely to occur, according to World Bank watchdog groups including the Bank Information Centre BIC, the Ulu Foundation and the International Trade Union Confederation.
via Leaked World Bank lending policies environmentally disastrous | Environment | theguardian.com.
The Spiral Turns 