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A new report produced by conservative thinktank Policy Exchange - described as David Cameron's "favourite", promotes upstream carbon taxes as more effective than market-based cap & trade in reducing emissions.  Read more

On the 28th of April, RBS held its Annual General Meeting in Edinburgh. Amidst the various motions relating to executive bonuses and a report back on the rocky road to recovery, two people raised concerns over the impact that RBS’ investments were having on indigenous communities in very different parts of the world.  Read more

Tullow & British Embassy push disputed deal that could cut Congo's revenues by $10 billion

Confidential oil contracts held by UK companies Tullow and Heritage in the Democratic Republic of Congo were leaked today, revealing the danger of economic rip-off and rights abuses in one of Africa's most unstable countries.

The Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs) are accompanied by a legal analysis, ''A Lake of Oil - Congo's controversial contracts compromise rights, environment & safety'', published in English and French by PLATFORM in partnership with the African Institute for Energy Governance (Afiego).  Read more

Dorothea Smartt (African Writers Abroad) joined the C Words closing Party and Benefit for the Canadian Indigenous Tar Sands Campaigners live via Skype. She performed her specially commisioned poem, A Sense of Denial, together with several other poems written specifically to the C Words season and inspired by the issues raised.

A Sense of Denial

Denial looks black, panelled, silver-edged
and gleaming. Car-washed in water
enough to quench a dying village’s thirst,  Read more

Two poets from African Writers Abroad were commssioned to respond to the C Words season. To craft the poem below, Simon Murray (Sai MuRai) borrows the title of Dorothea Smartt's poetry workshop "Full Circle" and draws upon some of the many words, phrases and themes that arose throughout the C Words season. The poem was performed live at the closing Party and Benefit for the Canadian Indigenous Tar Sands Campaigners on the 28th November.

*warning* contains language that some may find offensive

FULL CIRCLE

(for Jane Trowell, Dorothea Smartt & the C Words Family)

proposition I

enough words!  Read more

Held secret by the Ugandan government and oil companies Tullow Oil and Heritage Oil, PLATFORM today is revealing the terms of the contracts for oil operations by Lake Albert on the Uganda-Congo border, and their economic implications.

For the first time, one of Uganda's Production Sharing Agreements is available to the public to read, after a leaked copy was placed online. PLATFORM's analysis of the contract reveals that the repeated claims by the Ugandan government and the oil companies that Uganda has received a very good deal and the best in the region are not only a fiction, but were reliant on the real terms of the contracts being kept secret. While the contracts will deliver vast profits to Tullow Oil and Heritage Oil, the contracts will prevent the Ugandan people from receiving their due benefits. The terms of the contracts and the lack of openness are placing Uganda on a track set for the "resource curse".  Read more

Dorothea Smartt, one of the commissioned poets from African Writers Abroad, today releases a beautiful, inspiring poem created out of the 7th November creative writing workshop: Killing T.I.N.A, Embracing T.A.B.O.O (see below).

The ink is still wet but Dorothea's willingness to share this piece is testament to the amazing Creativity, Connections & Co-creations that are springing up with the C Words project.  Read more

To capture the essence of C Words, African Writers Abroad have released a constant stream of poetry online and offline, on physical and virtual walls. A leaflet will also soon be made available in the Arnolfini for visitors to take away which features this poetry together with newly commissioned work, contributions from participants on the creative writing workshops, and from local Bristol writers and poets.

The first poem to be released in the season is below.  Read more

Lobby groups funded by BP & Shell are organising public rallies in the US to oppose proposed legislation that would cap carbon emissions. The American Petroleum Institute (API) provided “upfront resources” to pay for an events company to organise public protest meetings.  Read more

Only in Brussels for 90 minutes, so not long enough to visit BP’s office on Rondpoint Schumann, adjacent to the European Commission.
This provides the company’s easy access for major EU lobbying of various EU institutions. BP — Extracting Influence at the heart of the EU, a report published earlier in 2009 by Corporate Europe Observatory and PLATFORM unmasked BP’s attempts to harness EU foreign policy and legislative power for its own benefit.  Read more