CRISES NOT FOR SALE: Stop the World Bank-IMF from profiting off of the climate crisis and planetary destruction!
Greed powers the climate crisis, and the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have determined that fueling it and perpetuating international suffering is central to their business model. They have weighed human lives and the suffering of millions from climate-driven disasters as a worthy trade-off for profit. While the Philippines and other countries drown in floods and corruption, these financial institutions and the elite are awash in the profit made from the losses in livelihood, losses in infrastructure, and deaths from the deadly fossil fuel projects they financed in the Global South countries.
In the Philippines, the World Bank financed the construction and expansion of various coal-fired power plants across the country. These coal plants have damaged, polluted, and killed surrounding communities and environments. Even the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Compliance Advisor Ombudsman recognized the environmental and safety risks their funded coal plants posed to communities.
The Philippine Movement for Climate Justice has extensively documented the situation of communities near World Bank-IFC-funded coal plants, which have significantly impacted the environment and community health and damaged the livelihoods of people in the area. These funds are debt that Filipinos must pay, essentially trapping us into paying for our own suffering and destruction from the calamities that the coal plants and other fossil fuels are supercharging.
Nearly ten years after coal-affected communities filed a case against the World Bank and its private-sector arm, the IFC, justice and remedies remain elusive for communities affected by the coal plants they sued. While the World Bank has moved away from its investment with local bank RCBC, through which funds for the coal plants flowed, it has not held its client accountable for funding them. Meanwhile, for investing money in further climate destruction, the World Bank has earned nearly $39 million for funding the country's coal boom.
Funding private companies to control public goods has caused serious economic harm to Filipinos. The country's privatized energy sector has continually abused its control over energy services. Oligarchs control the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. This, along with investments in fossil fuels like fossil gas, has made Philippine electricity rates among the highest in Southeast Asia.
If the World Bank and the IMF are serious in their commitment to helping developing countries, they must cancel the debts that mercilessly force people to pay for their deaths and the destruction of their communities. The damage they have done to Global South countries is immeasurable, and they must be held accountable and pay the reparations vulnerable communities deserve.
Investments must go toward real community development that secures food and energy needs, not damaging projects that pose as development. Investments in digital technology must support communities and not displace them. Funding for militarization, war, and genocide must be stopped. Redirect resources and money to protect human rights, ensure food security for all, guarantee true public service by the people, and fully and unconditionally cancel all debts.
Finally, the very system that allows for profit to be made off of the deaths and climate destruction must be destroyed. We must phase out these remaining coal plants immediately and replace them with cleaner, more sustainable, democratically owned renewable energy. Energy systems must be democratic and controlled by the people, not corporations that decide which deadly fossil fuel is more profitable.
Communities around the world are rallying to uproot this system that destroys them and forces them to pay for the destruction. The World Bank and the IMF's schemes have been exposed and must be stopped. They are climate and economic criminals whose money has funded the floods, the droughts, the wars, and the climate crisis-exacerbated disasters around the world.###
For inquiries:
Christian John P. Argallon
Media and Communications Officer
Philippine Movement for Climate Justice
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