Four European banks would financially block Petroecuador, after the non-profit organizations Stand.earth and Amazon Watch have launched a campaign since August 2020 to withdraw their support.
Amazon Watch, which is based in San Francisco, in the United States, said that that month they presented a report to financial institutions and later held virtual meetings to deepen their observations.
Along the same lines, Stand.earth, which has its headquarters in the United States and Canada, spoke out. They are specialized in the subject of research on business participation and how it generates impacts on citizens, the protection of forests and the rights of indigenous people.
The objective of both organizations is to protect the Amazon rainforest and the rights of indigenous peoples. That is why they have the support of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon (Confenaie).
In the August 2020 document, it is detailed that 19 banks and private financial institutions assumed in 2019 the commitment to care for the environment and respect the rights of indigenous peoples or nationalities. Despite this, they stated that financial entities provided commercial financing for about 155 million barrels of oil from Ecuador to refineries in the United States for about USD 10 billion. More than 40% of those exports go to refineries only in California, in the United States.
According to the report, that crude contained approximately 66 million metric tons of CO2, equivalent to the annual emissions of 17 coal-fired power plants.
The document also includes the environmental impact and the communities, which produced in April 2020 the oil spill due to the rupture of the oil pipelines, in San Rafael, in Napo.
Sofía Jarrín, Incidence advisor at Amazon Watch, pointed out that as a result of the analysis of the 19 entities, there are six European banks, considered key, because they finance 85% of all Ecuadorian crude trade.
According to Jarrín, the financing was given despite the fact that these banks promote policies to promote human rights and curb climate change.
After analyzing the report, it is observed that four of the six European banks made the decision not to finance the Ecuadorian crude trade. Even in early 2021, BNP Paribas Group, Credit Suisse and ING Belgium made their position public. And, Natixis from France did it the week before. UBS from Switzerland and Rabobank from the Netherlands are pending.
Meanwhile, the Ecuadorian state oil company announced that the exploration and exploitation of crude oil is done applying the highest quality standards to minimize environmental impacts, that they maintain sustainable projects such as the Living Amazon and that it promotes work with nearby communities.
At the same time, he specified that it has a community relations program that serves 890 communities.
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