Imogen CalderwoodSPANISH fossil fuel giant Repsol has been slammed in a new report detailing how multinationals are destroying the environment in South America.
A new report – released by three public interest groups – describes in detail the destruction caused by three European corporations, including Repsol, Swiss-based Glencore Xstrata and Italian Enel-Endesa.
The report – released by the Democracy Centre of San Francisco, the Corporate Europe Observatory of Brussels and the Transnational Institute of Amsterdam – details how the corporations are causing serious climate damage.
“In the case of Repsol, we see how the relentless pursuit of new gas and oil reserves in Peru takes direct aim at the region’s indigenous territories and forests, leaving social destruction in its wake,” reads the report.
It adds that further expansion from Repsol will be ‘at the cost of devastation of indigenous communities and their cultures, as well as the destruction of forests, biodiversity and water resources’.
Repsol is currently investing in future reserves at one of the highest rates in the world, in locations including the Amazon rainforest and a UNESCO world heritage site in the Canary Islands.
The report also accuses Repsol of being ‘at the heart’ of the Camisea project, a highly controversial project to extract natural gas from the middle of Peru’s delicate rainforest.
At the climate change conference COP20 – held in Lima this month – indigenous people from across the world made an appeal to UN leaders and national governments against the damage suffered in their communities.
Until we all go back to horse and cart, we’re all to blame.
Very true Fred but I really do think that the world could try a little harder for alternatives. As individuals, we can only use what is there. The onus lies on governments to have the will to look beyond easy, lucrative answers.
Repsol – Spanish – hav’nt they been doing that for about 600 years in South America?