Both ENDS
A number of Honduran organisations sent a letter to the FMO management to call on FMO not to do business with Honduran bank FICOHSA. The bank has close ties with the elite in Honduras, which holds considerable power in politics, the (para)military and the business community.
From 7 to 18 november, the Climate Change COP22 will take place in Marrakech, Morrocco. This '22nd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)' as it is called officially, is the annual meeting of the 195 countries which have signed and ratified the convention.
On Friday, the long awaited policy note by Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sigrid Kaag was published. The note was the outcome of a process of consultation, scientific analysis and much discussion within and outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We searched for the spirit underlying it: What trends does this minister consolidate and deepen? What is new? Are those new aspects a superficial change of discourse or a genuine break with the past? On what issues is the paper silent and what do those silences tell us?
Both ENDS and SOMO welcome the announcement done today by the Dutch and Finnish development banks, FMO and FinnFund, to exit the controversial Agua Zarca hydroelectric project in Honduras. Conflict about the project has led to violence in the region, including the murder of three leaders who opposed the project. In March 2016, renowned human rights defender Berta Caceres was murdered for opposing this project in indigenous Lenca territory.
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.
