FINANCE: Groups Fear Canadian Funding for Romanian Mine

Stephen Leahy

BROOKLIN, Canada, Nov 16 (IPS) - The World Bank's refusal to help fund a Canadian company's controversial development of a huge open pit gold mine in Romania has raised concerns the Canadian government will step in with money.

Last Monday hundreds of people gathered outside Canadian embassies in major European cities, including Budapest, Amsterdam, Vienna, Bratislava and Prague, to protest the 400-million-U.S.-dollar Rosia Montana gold mine in Romania. · Export Development Corporation· Romanian NGO Alburnus Maior· Gabriel Resources

''The Canadian government has to act to stop this mine. It will destroy the homes, churches and livelihoods of my people,” said Sorana Ciura, a member of Alburnus Maior, the Romanian group spearheading the protests, speaking at a news conference in Ottawa..

Submitted to Department of Finance and CIDA before World Bank discussions at Fall 2003 meetings on Enhancing Voice an

October 27, 2003

Private Interest and the Public Good

Tela sits astride a slow, meandering river of the same name. It looks out over a rim of white-sand beaches onto Tela Bay. A warm Caribbean sun forces you to lather up with sunscreen,and nolch back your pace a couple of strides per minute as you stroll around this small Honduran town.

A mixed population of Garifuna -or more prop­erly Garinagu - a people with a unique blend of Carib Indian and African roots, and folk of Spanish ancestry call this century- old, clapboard,. tin-roofed port town home. It holds about the same pop­ulation as the whole of the Yukon.

Canada’s position on Third World debt

Disclosure Policy
Room U-11-003
World Bank
1818 H Street
Washington, DC, 20433
USA

Halifax Initiative submission to consultation on draft information disclosure policy

“Whenever you are in doubt, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest man you have seen. Ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? Then you will find your doubt melting away”.
- Mahatma Gandhi

The World Bank, the IMF and FTAA
Halifax Initiative Statement on the FTAA

Halifax Initiative Objectives for the World Bank

TO begin a transition from its role in financing conventional power loans to a new role in financing sustainable energy technologies the World Bank should :

CHANGE ENERGY POLICY:

1. Institute a Moratorium on Lending or Guarantees for any project that involves new exploration for fossil fuel reserves in natural forests, pristine and frontier areas.

2. Phase Out Lending and Guarantees for any World Bank project that involves coal and oil extraction.

3. Institute a Moratorium on Lending and Guarantees for fossil fuel power projects pending :

Evaluations of all current and future power projects in full consultation with the communities most affected by the project, respecting the right of the local populations to decline a project which may adversely impact them;

THE WORLD BANK, BY CREATING THE PCF NOW, IS ACTING UNDEMOCRATICALLY AND IT MUST WAIT FOR A DECISION BY THE CONFERENCE OF PARTIES OF THE KYOTO PROTOCOL.

A. Initial Questions

1. How can the World Bank Group recognize the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote the development of a Prototype Carbon Fund without addressing the fundamental problem?

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Submission

Appendix A