Paving the Way to a Toxic-Free Planet: The New Global Framework on Chemicals – for a Planet Free of Harm from Chemicals and Waste

Published January 31, 2024 By Giulia Carlini, Manager and Senior Attorney in CIEL’s Environmental Health program, David Azoulay, Director of the Environmental Health Program, and Catherine Allary, Communications Campaign Specialist. After years of negotiations, the fifth International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5) successfully adopted a new global framework on September 30, 2023, in Bonn, Germany, … Read More.

The World Bank Needs a Remedy Framework to Deliver on Loss and Damage

Published December 18, 2023 By Aubrey Manahan, Campaigner for CIEL’s People, Land & Resources Program. This month, during the United Nations Climate Summit COP28 in Dubai, Parties finalized the creation of a Loss and Damage Fund aimed at addressing climate-related harms endured by vulnerable communities and countries. While this achievement follows decades of advocacy by … Read More.

Green Climate Fund: Updates from Songdo, South Korea

In March, the board of the Green Climate Fund met in South Korea to fund climate projects and shape its strategic plan for the next four years. The Green Climate Fund was established in 2010 as a promise to channel billions of dollars to low-income countries to help them adapt to a changing climate and reduce … Read More.

The Inter-American Development Bank Closes the Door on Justice for Chilean Communities Affected by Alto Maipo

The Inter-American Development Bank’s accountability mechanism officially closed its case on the Alto Maipo Hydroelectric Project after a flawed investigation and an ineffective action plan left communities with little to show for their years-long pursuit of accountability. At the end of November, the accountability mechanism of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) officially closed its case … Read More.

Does Divestment by Multilateral Development Banks Leave Communities in the Lurch?

When exiting investments, MDBs must address negative impacts of projects on communities What happens when the private sector arms of Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) exit their investments without addressing negative impacts and project-related harms, thus leaving project-affected communities without proper remedial actions? We examine seven IFC and IDB Invest cases to draw specific recommendations for … Read More.

The Maipo Valley’s Hydroelectric Nightmare: When “Clean” Development Harms People and their Environment

Chile’s last-minute decision not to host this year’s COP undercuts efforts by local communities and Indigenous Peoples to expose climate-related injustices happening in Santiago’s backyard. In response, CIEL is working with Chilean partners to make sure that Chilean voices are still heard and that human rights concerns remain at the center of the climate negotiations. … Read More.

Investors Spend US Tax Dollars on Fracking. Again.

Fracking destroys communities, endangers health, and perpetuates our addiction to fossil fuels. Yet, US tax dollars are still being poured into these destructive projects. Recently, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) voted to exacerbate the climate crisis, approving over $450 million of US taxpayer dollars to finance two large fracking projects in the region of … Read More.

How the World Bank Can Stop Funding Disaster

Now that the Supreme Court has ruled the World Bank can be sued, what’s next for the organization? This article originally appeared on TheNation.com. Until recently the World Bank enjoyed absolute immunity in the United States from lawsuits. But a US Supreme Court decision on February 27 opens the door for individuals and communities around … Read More.

Cheers to Accountability! Happy 25th!

Twenty-five years ago today, the answer to the question, “Where do we go if we are harmed by the World Bank?” changed from nowhere to the Inspection Panel. We live in an ever changing and more complicated world, where corporations have investors, managers, shareholders, and oversight from all over the world, and operations are owned … Read More.

A Day in the Life: The Early Warning System in Action

As I wrote in a previous post, the Early Warning System (EWS) helps make development work for everyone by offering communities the opportunity to have a say in projects that might impact them. But how does this play out in everyday life? (Or, in other words, what do I do all day besides read bank … Read More.

A Stitch in Time Saves Nine: Early Warning System 101

The Early Warning System (EWS)’s digital platform will be soon be made public, after years of hard work to improve the back-end of the site. But what is the Early Warning System, and why is it needed? When I began my internship at the Center for International Environment Law (CIEL), I couldn’t answer either of … Read More.

Public Participation & Rights a Priority at Upcoming Climate Meeting

From April 30 to May 10, countries will come together for a United Nations climate meeting, to continue to make progress toward implementing the Paris Agreement and meeting key goals at this year’s COP24 climate conference in Poland. To ensure positive climate outcomes that benefit both the planet and communities across the world, we must … Read More.

Rights for Ambition: Talanoa Dialogue presents opportunity to increase climate ambition while respecting rights

When countries adopted the Paris Agreement in 2015, they agreed to convene a “facilitative dialogue,” which would allow countries to come together to evaluate the world’s progress toward the goals of the Agreement. At last year’s climate talks, countries adopted the Talanoa Dialogue as the concept for this facilitative dialogue. The Talanoa Dialogue platform provides … Read More.

$600 Million Loan from Inter-American Development Bank will Support Controversial Energy Reform in Mexico

In 2013, Mexico’s president Enrique Peña Nieto Peña Nieto touted the country’s energy reform as a “historic opportunity” to “transform and elevate the quality of life of all Mexicans.” The constitutional changes, which ended decades-long monopolies on oil, gas, and electricity held by two state-owned companies, have both Mexican and foreign private competitors salivating at … Read More.

Protecting Rights through a Transnational Corporate Accountability Treaty

At a time when a number of States are working to accelerate negotiations of international trade and investment agreements, an open-ended intergovernmental working group (IGWG) is working to draft a legally binding instrument (a transnational corporate accountability treaty) to address the legal imbalance between the rights and obligations of global businesses and those of the … Read More.

Trade and Sustainable Development: Friend or Foe?

In most international organizations, including the United Nations (UN) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), conventional wisdom is that international trade supports sustainable development. “Trade growth enhances a country’s income generating capacity, which is one of the essential prerequisites for achieving sustainable development,” the WTO noted in the 2016 UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable … Read More.

Overcoming Obstacles: The Long and Winding Road to Remedy for Communities

Despite claims that development projects are designed to benefit communities around the world, they often do the opposite. Projects, especially infrastructure projects, can bring myriad problems — impacting access to or quality of water, forcing communities to resettle, infringing on grazing land, and polluting the air, water, and land, among other devastating consequences. When things go … Read More.

Alto Maipo Update: More Financial Woes for Beleaguered Hydro Project

With an important contractor exiting the project, more cost overruns, and the recent death of an employee, the Alto Maipo hydroelectric project is facing new crippling challenges The Alto Maipo Hydroelectric Project (PHAM) is a hydroelectric mega-project near Santiago, Chile, that has repeatedly come under fire for environmental, social, and financial reasons. In the wake … Read More.

The Green Climate Fund: A Refresher

It’s a been a while since we’ve written about the Green Climate Fund (GCF), but given its recent popularity in the media stemming from Trump’s complete mischaracterization of it when declaring his intent to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement, we wanted to give you a refresher on it. What it does. Contrary to … Read More.

Liability for Climate (In)action: Who will be next?

Reprinted with permission from the Business and Human Rights Resource Center. This summer, we celebrated a big win for the climate.  In a lawsuit brought by Urgenda and nearly 900 co-plaintiffs against the Dutch government (Urgenda Foundation et al. v. The Netherlands), the District Court of The Hague found that the government “acted negligently” when … Read More.

El Salvador says “NO to a Kangaroo Court!”

The Australian Embassy is about 8 blocks of traffic, restaurants, and business offices northwest of the World Bank’s headquarters in Washington, DC– I know this because yesterday I walked the distance alongside a group of energized human rights activists. “El Salvador says no to a Kangaroo Court!” To us, the connection between the lunchtime rally … Read More.