Italian prosecutors have raided Shell's offices to investigate the suspicious acquisition of a huge offshore oil field in Nigeria, writes Vanessa Amaral-Rogers. The oil block, sold by the Government for $20 million to a shell company owned by the oil minister, was later acquired for $1.1 billion by Shell and Eni.
… government acting as middleman, for US$1.1bn. Investigations into the money trail This sum …
Hinkley C's subsidy package may have won European Commission approval - but now it faces a National Audit Office 'value for money' investigation, following a demand from a powerful Parliamentary committee.
NAO investigates Hinkley C nuclear subsidies Terry Macalister The Guardian | 17th October 2014 News Nuclear Energy UK Politics Economics Finance hinkley-c-edf-cut.jpg Hinkley C's subsidy package may …
The Government of Honduras is intent on framing the only witness to the murder of Berta Cáceres as the one guilty of the crime, writes Beverly Bell. Gustavo Castro Soto, an eco-defender from Mexico, is now in effective detention in his country's embassy in Tegucigalpa in fear of his life, having himself been injured in the attack and seen the real assassin. The US Government must break its resounding silence.
Gustavo Castro Soto and the rigged investigation into Berta Cáceres’s assassination Beverly Bell | 23rd March 2016 News Honduras USA Corporations Eco-defenders Finance Mexico Indigenous Peoples Law …
In Ken Silverstein's 'The Secret World of Oil', Louis Proyect investigates the uber-wealthy middlemen of oil, inhabiting a pampered universe of moral squalor and depravity - one in which Tony Blair found himself completely at home.
A descent into Big Oil's inferno Louis Proyect | 8th July 2014 Reviews Oil Fossil Fuels USA Africa Finance secret-world-of-oil-cut.jpg In Ken Silverstein's 'The Secret World of Oil', Louis Proyect …
In a major investigation and film, the Ecologist takes a look at how volatile financial speculation on food commodities is causing hunger and poverty in Mexico - and around the world
Food speculation 'boom' linked to volatile food prices The Ecologist | 13th September 2011 Comment Food Speculation Banking Finance Politics And Economics foodspec.jpg In a major investigation and …
Disregarding revelations of systemic political corruption in Brazil's hydropower sector, President Dilma Rousseff is ploughing ahead with a cascade of giant dams on the mighty Tapajos river. Among the companies touting to win huge construction contracts are France's EDF and Engie, and Germany's Voith and Siemens - in a consortium led by Brazil's Electrobras, which stands accused of high-level corruption over four other dam projects.
European companies line up to bid for Amazon megadam Zachary Boren Greenpeace Energydesk | 13th April 2016 News Corporations Brazil Forests Politics Finance Water Energy Hydropower Indigenous Peoples …
Agriculture is big business and with the EU pumping money at the sector, the corporate profiteers are holding all the aces, writes Chris Lang. The documentary ‘Land Grabbing’ investigates what happens when well-financed agro-investors take over rural communities' land and water.
‘Land Grabbing’: exposing the impacts of large-scale agriculture on local communities Chris Lang REDD Monitor | 8th February 2016 Reviews Land Grabs Farming Finance EU Romania Cambodia Africa Sierra …
In the last budget before the general election, Alistair Darling announced a series of measures that could have a positive environmental impact, including a £2 billion green investment bank
Snapshot: what the budget does for the green economy The Ecologist | 24th March 2010 News Politics And Economics Energy Finance Transport Tax Investment poundsonchart.jpg In the last budget before …
EDF's 'final investment decision' on the Hinkley C nuclear power station next week will be pure theatre, writes David Toke. The truth is that no concrete is to be poured until 2019 at the earliest. Meanwhile post-Brexit UK is running out of money to pay for it, and EDF is under investigation by the Financial Markets Authority for concealing information on Hinkley from investors.
EDF to postpone Hinkley C start until 2019 or beyond David Toke | 22nd July 2016 News Nuclear Energy Corporations Finance UK France hpc-ai-big-cut.jpg EDF's 'final investment decision' on the Hinkley …
Between 2011 and 2016 the UK's export finance agency UKEF provided £109m to underwrite exports of equipment to coal mines in Russia, writes Lawrence Carter - despite the agency's commitment not to support 'investment in dirty fossil-fuel energy production'. And that's just a fraction of the £6.9 billion UKEF has lavished on the corrupt, polluting sector since 2000, while it was meant to be backing the clean energy technologies of the future.
Leaked: UK £7 billion export credit for fossil fuel industry violates 'clean energy' pledge Lawrence Carter Greenpeace Energydesk | 16th May 2017 News Finance Politics Fossil Fuels Climate Change UK …
Can the cut-throat, speculative world of the stock market be used to hold businesses to account for environmental damage and human rights abuses? Chris Milton investigates for the Ecologist
Sustainable stock exchanges: a new choice for investors Chris Milton | 28th December 2010 News Stock Market Politics And Economics Finance Investors marketplace.jpg A Social Stock Exchange could …
They promote GMOs, defend toxic chemicals, and attack people who raise concerns about those products as 'anti-science'. But behind the slick 'astroturf' PR fronts lurk some very dubious funders: the same arch-conservative foundations that finance climate science denial. Stacy Malkan exposes the key players in the agribusiness and chemical industry propaganda wars.
Propaganda wars: 'pro-science' GMO, chemicals boosters funded by climate change deniers Stacy Malkan | 28th February 2017 News GMOs Pesticides Toxics Climate Change Media Spin Finance USA …
The UK's financing of fossil fuels abroad increased tenfold in two years to exceed £1 billion in 2013 / 2014, writes Christine Ottery. Incredibly, the fossil fuel funding increase came after a government promise to use the money to support 'innovative and green technologies'.
UK's soaraway financial support to foreign fossil fuels Christine Ottery Greenpeace Energydesk | 9th January 2015 News UK Finance Fossil Fuels Oil Gas Coal Climate Change Politics …
Less than two weeks after the murder of Honduran eco defender Berta Caceres, another indigenous leader has been shot dead during the violent police and military eviction of 150 families from the settled community of Rio Chiquito. International funders of the controversial Agua Zarca hydro project are now backing out..
Berta Caceres colleague murdered in Honduras The Ecologist | 16th March 2016 News Honduras Finance Human Rights Indigenous Peoples Water zarca-cut.jpg Less than two weeks after the murder of Honduran …
Russia's Lake Baikal is under threat by a massive dam and pipeline on the main river that feeds into it, that would supply mines with power and water, writes Anson Mackay. In line to fund the project? The World Bank.
Lake Baikal: World Heritage ecosystems at risk from Mongolian dam Anson Mackay | 19th April 2015 News Finance Water Energy Mining Russia Mongolia Natural World lake-baikal-cut.jpg Russia's Lake …
The eviction of Kenya's Sengwer forest people in a World Bank financed project was a failure of the Bank's duty to protect indigenous people, according to an internal report. The Bank's directors are to decide on how to respond today - but if they follow their own management's advice, the evictions will continue.
World Bank 'failing to protect Kenya forest dwellers' John Vidal The Guardian | 30th September 2014 News Kenya Finance Indigenous Peoples Africa Forests sengwer-fires-cut.jpg The eviction of Kenya's …
As the world’s poorest countries sink further and further into debt, Western corporations grow fat from government-backed projects that fuel conflicts, harm the environment and have built-in kickbacks.
Backing the Bad Guys Noreena Hertz | 1st December 2004 News World Bank Donald Rumsfeld Iraq Un Multilateral International Development US Finance World Bank Climate Change Politics And Economics …
Turkey's plans for a hydroelectric dam on the Tigris have been scrapped as Europe withdraws funds for a failure to meet environmental obligations, while plans for the trans-Europe Nabucco gas pipeline are ratified
… go-ahead The Ecologist | 13th July 2009 News Investigations Energy Politics And Economics …
The UK tried to make the EU relax its rules on State Aid to allow subsidies to nuclear power. Now we know - it failed. The chances that the Hinkley C power station will ever be built have fallen another notch.
New EU rules hammer UK's nuclear ambitions The Ecologist | 10th April 2014 News Nuclear Power EU Regulation Energy Finance hinkleyb-ca-thin.png The UK tried to make the EU relax its rules on State …
With the sixth anniversary of the Fukushima disaster falling tomorrow, nuclear lobbyists are arguing over solutions to the existential crisis facing nuclear power, writes Jim Green. Some favour a multinational consolidation of large conventional reactor designs, while others back technological innovation and 'small modular reactors'. But in truth, both approaches are doomed to failure.
Terminal decline? Fukushima anniversary marks nuclear industry's deepening crisis Jim Green Nuclear Monitor | 10th March 2017 News Nuclear Energy Technology Finance Health fuk-mission-cut.jpg With …
George Osborne pledged £1billion to a green bank that could help Britain reduce carbon emissions. But with low carbon technologies unproven, banks, institutions and energy companies are wary, meaning the venture may not attract the capital to make it viable
The shutoff of water to thousands of Detroit residents, the proposed privatization of the water system, and the diversion of the system's revenue to banks are possible, writes Pete Dolak, because water - the most basic human need - has become a means to extract profit from the City's people.
Detroit: what happens when water is a commodity, not a human right Pete Dolack | 19th August 2013 Comment USA Water Economics Finance dwb-shu-on-megaphone-cut.jpg The Detroit Water Brigade crew help …
The main engine of economic exploitation is the financial system's ever increasing extraction of value through interest payments, according to economist Michael Hudson. Paul Craig Roberts finds his analysis all too accurate, as the over-financialized economies of western countries head down a spiral of poverty, decline, injustice and despair.
… rate of return in the world in 1990. Hudson's investigations into the problems of our time …