Royal Bank of Scotland Targeted by Climate Protestors
By Jennie Bailey

On Monday 15th October, 30 groups of climate campaigners from around the country targeted the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and its subsidiary NatWest. RBS is the UK's biggest investor in oil and gas projects. From 2001 to 2006 the company signed thirty deals, committing themselves to funding 655 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions – more than the UK produces in a year. Because of this, a national day of action - planned during this year's Camp for Climate Action - was called by Rising Tide UK, a network for action against climate change.

According to Rising Tide UK, actions included: street theatre including delivering an oil pipe in RBS and NatWest branches in Oxford, presentations on the virtues of the RBS oil investments in Birmingham. Polar bears locked themselves to weighted suitcases in Bristol. In Manchester and London banners were dropped - and in Aberysthwyth a helium balloon-enhanced banner-rose - proudly displaying 'Sponsoring climate change' from the ceiling.

Emma Hughes , Climate Change intern at student campaigning network People & Planet (P&P;), said, '[The national day of action was] brilliant! It's great that there were so many actions. There's a real movement of people concerned about climate change; making corporations seriously think about what they're doing'. Peter Speller, P&P;'s 'Ditch Dirty Development' campaign intern also enthused, 'Lots of students were involved, groups from Edinburgh, Birmingham and Oxford.' People & Planet will be launching its new Royal Bank of Scotland campaign at the annual Shared Planet conference this November. This new student campaign, targeting a major high-street bank, could rival the Lloyds and Midland Boycott (LAMB) campaign of the mid-nineties which called for the banks to drop third world debt and stop funding military dictatorships.

Meanwhile, the Royal Bank of Scotland have been stepping up their public relations spiel. Last week, the bank issued a press release that extolled the virtues of its social and environmental policies. According to the bank's brochure, RBS and the Environment, RBS are '...the largest financier of renewable energy in the World, with over $2 billion committed in 2006 alone.' A local journalist, who interviewed a member of RBS' media department, told Corporate Watch off the record that the spokesperson said, 'since 2006, [RBS] have put five times more money into renewables as our nearest competitor'. But, when pressed as to who this competitor is, they responded with, 'I don't know'.

Campaign coalition, Oyal Bank of Scotland, have issued a response to the bank's brochure and to the press-release, providing information on their website which debunks RBS' spin. One member of the coalition, Mika Minio-Paluello, explained, 'whilst it's true that RBS are investing around $2billion in renewables, that still doesn't make it OK. It doesn't change the fact that they continue to be the main bank for fossil fuel projects. A transition to a low carbon economy is essential to meet set global targets of 20 – 30% cuts in CO2 emissions by 2020. RBS, rather than going on the PR offensive, need to stop financing new projects. The economy wouldn't collapse if all banks stopped funding new projects tomorrow; until banks reduce financing these damaging fossil-fuel focussed projects, we cannot move to a low carbon economy which we need to do to stop a complete climate collapse.'

Regarding the national day of action itself Mika added, 'there were loads of good, vibrant actions. I'm really happy people are calling RBS to account. RBS are clearly starting to feel the pressure as people are seeing through their greenwash.'

More information from:

• Oyal Bank of Scotland
• risingtide.org.uk