from Sunday Herald, 26 October 2014
Scotland is being urged to stop burning “dirty coal” from Colombia and to pull the public sector’s multi-million pound investments in a big mining corporation that’s involved.
Victims of the vast Cerrejón mine in the La Guajira region of Colombia are due in Glasgow, Edinburgh and South Lanarkshire this week. The mine, which covers 69,000 hectares, has forcibly displaced farming communities, polluted water supplies and destroyed sacred sites, they say.
“The coal which is used to warm your houses on cold nights is the same coal which has taken our homes from us,” says Rogelio Ustate from the Federation of Communities Displaced by Mining in La Guajira (FECODEMIGUA).
"The coal that comes from Cerrejón is dirty coal, stained by the blood and sweat of the people of La Guajira. In Europe, people enjoy light at the suffering of these communities.”
He alleges that children have died because river water has been contaminated, and that people are dying of thirst while the mine used huge amounts of water. “Coal mining in Colombia has led to the destruction of the social fabric, the loss of ancestral or traditional medicine and the destruction and disappearance of sacred sites," he says.
According to government figures, nearly four million tonnes of Colombian coal was imported to Hunterston in North Ayrshire in 2013. A substantial portion ended up being burnt in Scotland’s biggest power station at Longannet in Fife.
The Cerrejón mine is one-third owned by BHP Billiton, a £40 billion Anglo-Australian mining giant. Research by the Sunday Herald has revealed that in 2013 Scotland’s main public sector pension scheme covering 430 bodies invested £64 million in the company.
The Scottish Parliament is part of a pension scheme that invests £327,000 in BHP Billiton, while Edinburgh University invests just under £1 million and Glasgow University last year invested £80,000 (see table below).
Francisco Tovar, also from FECODEMIGUA, called on BHP Billiton investors to consider the livelihoods that the Cerrejón mine was threatening. “The suffering, the hunger and the pain we are subjected to cannot be justified by any profit made,” he said.
Tovar and Ustate protested at BHP Billiton’s annual meeting in London on Thursday, and are due in Scotland this week to talk to MSPs, coal mining communities and the public. Their tour has been organised by a network of campaigning groups in the UK, and they will be joined by environmentalists from Indonesia worried about the company’s coal plans for Borneo.
One of the organisers, Coal Action Scotland, demanded that Longannet cease burning Colombia coal, and be closed to cut climate pollution. “By burning this coal Scotland is complicit in the human rights abuses and massive environmental damage caused by opencast mining in Colombia,” said the group’s Oliver Munnion.
Demands to disinvest from BHP Billiton have been backed by the independent MSP, John Finnie, who joined the Scottish Green Party earlier this month. He praised Glasgow University for its recent decision to stop investing in fossil fuel companies, and urged the Scottish Parliament to follow its example.
The parliament, however, pointed out that its pension scheme was pooled with others and independently managed. Edinburgh University is currently reviewing whether to disinvest from fossil fuel companies.
Scottish Power, which operates Longannet, confirmed that it imported coal from Colombia, but declined to say how much. “Our coal procurement contracts include clauses which assert that suppliers must have good practices for supporting and respecting the protection of human rights,” said a company spokesman.
BHP Billiton accepted that there had been problems in the past in Colombia, but insisted it “cared deeply” about the criticisms that had been made. “As a shareholder in the Cerrejón mine, we take a very active interest in the way the mine is working and the relationship with the local community,” said company chairman Jac Nasser.
“We know that progress has been made and we also know that the Cerrejón management team is absolutely committed to maintaining and improving its relationship with the local communities,” he added. “We recognise that Cerrejón is operating in an extremely difficult socio-political environment and that this history is long and complex.”
The company pointed out that the mine made a major contribution to the economy in Colombia. In 2013 it created more than 14,000 jobs directly and indirectly and paid $650 million (£400m) in taxes and royalties.
Public sector investments in BHP Billiton
Scotland’s public sector pension funds (2013) / £64 million
Scottish Parliament’s pension fund / £372,000
Edinburgh University / £980,418
Glasgow University (2013) / £80,000
The latest report on the Scottish Parliament's pension scheme investments can be downloaded here (696KB pdf).
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