Response from Both ENDS and OxfamNovib to new FMO climate fund
Both ENDS and Oxfam Novib welcome the new SDG Loan Fund launched by FMO. The fund aims to invest more than a billion euros in loans to small and medium-sized enterprises in low- and middle-income countries, in the energy, inclusive financial services and sustainable agriculture sectors. At the same time, both organisations are concerned about the impact of money from the fund on normal people in future recipient countries.
Welcome contribution to climate funding
The fund is a very welcome contribution to the financial efforts required to achieve the targets laid down in the Paris Climate Agreement. According to the International Energy Agency, (IEA), more than 1,000 billion dollars a year are required to pay for the energy transition in developing countries alone, a substantial part of which (around 60%) has to come from private investors. According to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), almost 400 billion dollars a year are also needed for climate adaptation, to which the FMO SDG fund can also make a contribution. In addition, hundreds of billions of dollars in public funding are also required for both the energy transition and adaptation. Mobilizing private investments does not relieve the Dutch government from the obligation to make more money available itself for climate funding for developing countries.
FMO must put people before profit
As a development bank, FMO is obliged to give the highest priority to the interests of normal people in future recipient countries of money from the fund. In the recent past, these people have sometimes been the victims of investments by FMO, including investments in clean energy. These include megaprojects like hydroelectric dams or solar parks as a result of which people have been driven from their land, not allowed a fair share of the revenues, or silenced if they expressed criticism. For all the projects and businesses that this climate fund will support, FMO must conduct thorough investigations to ensure that local people also approve of the investments and, if that is the case, that they are involved in the development of the projects.
Greenwashing
“We applaud the fact that, through this fund, FMO is more emphatically committed to financing sustainable initiatives,” says Nick Middeldorp of Both ENDS. “But practice shows that FMO more often supports ‘green’ projects that turn out not to be green.” A selection of some of FMO’s previous investments, such as the Feronia palm oil plantation in Congo and the Barro Blanco dam in Panama, shows that the bank often provides financial support for highly controversial projects.
Also recently, a 'sustainable' initiative in Malawi turned out to have negative impact on local residents: they had to make way for a gigantic solar park.
FMO still investing in fossil projects
FMO likes to present itself as a progressive and sustainable bank, and this new fund is no exception. A growing proportion of FMO’s investments, however, are provided through financial intermediaries. Some of these investments end up in fossil projects, and FMO is not transparent about this.
Real solutions for people and planet
Both ENDS and Oxfam Novib call on FMO to do something radically different with this climate fund. That includes creating space for funding local, bottom-up initiatives that are not owned by wealthy elites in countries characterized by extreme inequality. In addition, FMO must guarantee that investments in fossil fuels, also through financial intermediaries, are a thing of the past. Middeldorp: “The future of our planet demands nothing less.”
Read more about this subject
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External link / 31 May 2018
Supporting farmer managed natural regeneration to gain ground (Annual Report 2017)
Many people in the desertifying Sahel region have to choose: claim their land back from the desert, or leave their farms behind. In 2017, Both ENDS started a new project here, introducing a method for regreening the landscape: Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR). It has proven itself in Niger, where we worked on FMNR for 15 years. By 2017, 15.000 ha of dryland had been regreened.
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Event / 13 April 2018, 11:30
Small grants, big impacts: workshop on Africa Day
On the 14th of April, Both ENDS wil host a workshop called 'Small Grants, Big Impacts' on the annual Africa day in Amsterdam. The workshop aims to demonstrate that so called 'small grants funds' effectively deliver (devopment and climate) money where it matters, to people that need it the most. Large development banks, funds, donors and governments could use small grants funds as alternative financing mechanisms to make sure their money benefits people and their environment now and it the far future.
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Blog / 27 February 2024
Partners fighting for rights within natural resource exploration in Uganda
A recent visit to Uganda highlighted the country as the latest example of ethical, environmental and human rights dilemmas brought forth by natural resource exploration.
Under the guise of economic prosperity and energy security, the future of Uganda’s forests, lakes, national parks, and by extension that of the people that depend on these resources, is increasingly endangered. Both ENDS partners in Uganda work with local communities to preserve these natural environments and the livelihoods that come from it.
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News / 10 November 2022
African women raise their voice ahead of COP27 and call for climate justice
In October 2022, 150 women from 14 African Countries gathered in Port Harcourt, Nigeria for the first African Women's Climate Assembly. The aim of this Assembly was to strengthen and unify women-led struggles against dirty extractives and false solutions to the climate crisis in West and Central Africa, and propose the real development solutions that support women's interests in a good and decent life and livelihoods in a time of climate crisis.
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News / 6 November 2023
Response to FMO investments in Nicaragua
On 27 October, RTL Nieuws reported that the Steungroep Nicaragua considers the millions of euros that the Dutch development bank FMO is investing in Nicaragua irresponsible. When asked, FMO stated that 'it had to continue to support its entrepreneurs in difficult times'. Both ENDS believes that the choice to continue to invest in Nicaragua brings substantial risks, which FMO does not take sufficiently into account when deciding on financing. Previous FMO investments have caused harm to people and the environment and, in some cases, even led to violence – with, as its lowest point, the murder of Berta Cáceres in Honduras in 2016.
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Letter / 9 November 2020
Input into FMO’s public consultation on Climate Action Commitments and Fossil Fuel Statement
Both ENDS and partners gave their input on FMO's public consultation on Climate Action Commitments and Fossil Fuel Statement. Both ENDS and partners are pleased that FMO is finally taking a stand regarding fossil fuels, but in our opinion it could be more ambitious.
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News / 28 June 2022
In solidarity with daughter of murdered Indigenous leader
On Tuesday 28 June, the Honduran organisation COPINH and the Global Justice Association filed a complaint with the public prosecutor in the Netherlands against Dutch development bank FMO. For COPINH, this is part of their continued efforts to bring to justice those involved in the murder of their leader Berta Cáceres. FMO financed the Agua Zarca project in Honduras in 2014. The new complaint is based on documents indicating that FMO's money has been used improperly.
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News / 10 November 2020
FMO takes a step towards divesting from fossil fuels
The Dutch development bank FMO has published a statement about fossil fuels to take steps in climate action. Both ENDS and partners are pleased that FMO is finally taking a stand regarding fossil fuels, but in our opinion it could be more ambitious. In order to really contribute to sustainability and equality, it is essential that development banks stop investing in harmful fossil projects.
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News / 6 March 2018
Director of electricity company arrested in Berta Cáceres case
On Friday, March 2, the director of DESA, David Castillo, was arrested in Honduras on suspicion of involvement in the murder of Berta Cáceres, exactly 2 years ago. The Honduran government refused for a long time to not only detect the actual murderers, but also the intellectual authors of the murder of Cáceres.
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News / 8 November 2021
Both ENDS and SOMO condemn violence against Indigenous community near the Barro Blanco dam in Panama
Members of the Indigenous Ngäbe Buglé people were brutally attacked by Panamanian police on Friday 29 October 2021 from a parcel of private land near the FMO-financed Barro Blanco hydroelectric dam. The victims, all members of the anti-dam movement M22, had peacefully occupied the land after their protest camp got dismantled in July this year.
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News / 27 July 2021
In conversation with the Ngäbe-Bugle community in Panama, after five years of Barro Blanco-dam
In April 2021, the Dutch development bank FMO announced that it is no longer involved in the Barro Blanco project, a controversial dam in Panama. GENISA, the Panamanian company that built the dam, unexpectedly paid off the multi-million dollar loan early. The question is to what extent, now that the bank is no longer actively financing the project, FMO can still be held responsible for the damage and suffering that was caused when this was still the case.
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External link / 31 May 2018
Agua Zarca debacle leads to policy changes at FMO (Annual Report 2017)
Sometimes things must go terribly wrong before big players start to move. In March 2016, Honduran activist Berta Cáceres was murdered because of her leading role in the protests against the Agua Zarca hydro dam, co-financed by the Dutch FMO. One and a half year later, FMO changed their policies to prevent such events in the future.
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Press release / 5 October 2022
Independent research confirms FMO’s responsibility for destruction caused by Barro Blanco dam, recommends compensation
Utrecht, 5 October 2022 - Dutch development bank FMO bears responsibility for the destruction of livelihoods, economic losses and environmental damage caused by the construction of the Barro Blanco dam in Panama, according to a report by the bank's Independent Complaints Mechanism (ICM). Indigenous communities affected by the dam are pleased that their complaints have been confirmed and reiterate their call for apologies and compensation.
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News / 22 August 2022
Complaint to development banks about the Nachtigal dam in Cameroon
Both ENDS partner IFI Synergy has filed a complaint to the World Bank on behalf of local inhabitants about the Nachtigal dam in Cameroon. The dam is causing considerable problems for local communities and local people feel that the compensation they receive is inadequate. They also feel that they were insufficiently informed and consulted before construction of the dam started.
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Dossier /
Agua Zarca: indigenous fight against dam costs lives
Indigenous Hondurans are resisting the construction of the Agua Zarca hydrodam. Their fight has cost several lives, including that of Berta Cáceres. After considerable public pressure, Dutch development bank FMO withdrew from the project.
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Dossier /
Finance for agroecology
The lion's share of public budgets for climate, agriculture and development still goes to conventional agroindustrial projects that contribute to the current climate, food and biodiversity crises. Both ENDS and our partners are calling for a transition to agroecological practices that are people- and environment-friendly.
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Dossier /
Indigenous communities threatened by Barro Blanco dam in Panama
The Barro Blanco dam project in Panama, which has Dutch financial support, is causing indigenous lands to disappear under water. Both ENDS is working to protect the rights of indigenous communities living near the dam.
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Dossier /
Large-scale infrastructure
Large-scale infrastructural projects have detrimental effects on local people and the environment, while their benefits are felt elsewhere. Both ENDS is working to ensure that local people have a greater say in decision-making and is investigating the way these projects are funded.
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News / 6 April 2017
Barro Blanco floodings: enormous damage
The closing of the Barro Blanco dam last year caused not only material but also cultural damage in the affected Ngäbe-Buglé communities in Panama. So far, funder FMO is not taking responsibility for the human rights abuses caused by the project. So, what now?
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Event / 19 September 2019, 19:30
The Dutch Climate Roundtable 'International'
Last June, after months of negotiations in five different 'climate roundtables', the Dutch government presented its Climate Agreement . Negotiations had taken place in a roundtable for 'industry', for 'built environment', for 'electricity', 'mobility' and for 'agriculture and land use'. Climate measures that the Netherlands can take within its borders are pretty much covered by these climate roundtables. But the Netherlands also has a huge climate footprint outside its borders. It seems we have forgotten about the 'International' Climate Roundtable.