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dam-l Agence France Press article: 3-Gorges + Bank involvement
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From owner-irn-three-gorges@netvista.net Fri Apr 7 15:26:31 2000
From: owner-irn-three-gorges@netvista.net
Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2000 12:14:17 -0700 (PDT)
Message-Id: <200004071914.e37JEHF04948@DaVinci.NetVista.net>
subject: LS: AFP: Environmental, human rights activists target banks
Environmental, human rights activists target banks
Sender: owner-irn-three-gorges@netvista.net
Precedence: bulk
Agence France Presse
April 6, 2000, Thursday
By Sharon Behn
Clients with stock in the financial services giant Morgan Stanley Dean
Witter on Thursday filed a shareholder resolution questioning the bank's
approach to human rights and the environment in its underwriting decisions.
The resolution asked Morgan Stanley Dean Witter to take account of
environmental issues, human rights and public relations risks in its stock
and bond underwriting.
"We also questioned MSDW's underwriting of bonds for the China Development
Bank, a major lender to the Three Gorges Dam corporation," said Simon
Billenness, senior analyst for Trillium Asset Management Corporation
representing clients with stock in the bank.
The Three Gorges Dam, brainchild of former Chinese leader Li Peng and the
world's biggest hydroelectric project, will submerge huge parcels of land and
force the relocation of some 1.2 million people.
Doubts about the massive 27 billion dollar project in China's central Hubei
province have led experts to question the financial logic of the project and
warn of its damaging impact on the environment.
After years of protest, activists opposed to the plan are holding companies
like MSDW accountable for their role in such projects.
The International Rivers Network Three Gorges Campaign is calling for
consumers to cut up their Discover Cards, effectively boycotting a significant
section of the bank's financial services.
"It's time for customers to understand clearly how their money and business
can be used as leverage to hold the company accountable," IRN spokeswoman Doris
Shen told AFP in a telephone interview.
"It's time they established meaningful social and environmental guidelines,"
she said.
IRN, together with a spectrum of mainstream environmental and human rights
groups, is launching a full-scale media and Internet campaign to inform
consumers of the link between banks and questionable projects -- specifically
the Three Gorges Dam -- to culminate on Earth Day April 22.
"I am seeing an unprecedented level of cooperation and sophistication as
environmental, human rights and consumer groups have begun to coalesce,"
Billenness said.
He cited the most recent case regarding PetroChina, the Chinese state-owned
oil company that had its debut on the New York Stock Exchange amid protests in
the US Congress and from opponents of Chinese policy on Tibet.
"What we're asking Morgan Stanley Dean Witter to do is to incorporate
environmental and human rights criteria into all their business, including
lending and underwriting," Billenness said.
The move reflects growing sophistication on the part of activists who target
banks that are behind what they believe are questionable projects.
"We're trying to upstream the advocacy process to follow the money," Sandy
Buffett of the National Wildlife Federation -- a Morgan Stanley Dean Witter
shareholder -- told AFP.
Resolutions similar to that filed with MSDW have also been filed with Bank of
America, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup but were withdrawn after they agreed to
come to the table.
"The resolution with Morgan Stanley will stay because the quality of their
dialogue was not high enough," Billenness explained, adding that on Thursday
Morgan Stanley chairman Philip Purcell said he was "re-committed to dialogue"
with shareholders and environmental groups.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: April 6, 2000
Sandy Buffett
Project Coordinator
"Making the Quantum Leap from Washington to Wall Street"
A joint project of the National Wildlife Federation
& Friends of the Earth
1400 16th St. NW, Ste. 501, Washington, D.C. 20036 USA
Tel. 202.797.6692
Fax. 202.797.5486