By Bekah Hinojosa and Larisa Manescu
Here’s some South Texas resistance to warm your heart during the chillier than usual winter!
Last month, over 80 organizations from across Texas, the nation, and around the world stood with our Rio Grande Valley (RGV) community and signed a letter demanding French bank Société Générale to drop support for the proposed Rio Grande LNG terminal and the Rio Bravo Pipeline by the end of 2017.
The letter also called on the bank to refuse investing, financing, arranging, or facilitating any development of new gas pipelines and LNG terminals in North America, by adopting a policy similar to what French bank BNP Paribas announced they would do back in October in order to meet the needs of the Paris Agreement. BNP’s policy update was a success for us: The bank dropped public support for the Texas LNG export terminal, the other LNG terminal proposed for the RGV!
On Dec. 11, a few days after the letter was delivered, 54 activists in Paris, France, dressed up as French bank Société Générale snails and blocked the entrance to the Ministry of Economy and Finance where the “Climate Finance Day” conference was being held, holding a banner that read “Societe Generale lagging behind - Stop Rio Grande LNG.”
Photo: Snails Slug Into Paris, France Climate Week, Les Amis de la Terre
We’re still waiting to hear from Société Générale (true to the snail claims, they didn’t respond to our New Year deadline), but the global reach of the anti-LNG movement has our Valley community looking forward to our 2018 goal of continuing international mobilization to demand the bank to divest from Rio Grande LNG and the Rio Bravo Pipeline.
Last year, the Save RGV from LNG group had seven op-eds published and over 600 people attend 20 events, including this kayak meet-up:
This year, they're planning even bigger things to tackle the LNG giants, demand French bank Société Générale divest from LNG, and defend our Rio Grande Valley communities.
For updates on the Save RGV from LNG campaign, follow their Facebook page.
Here’s the full text of the December sign-on letter:
To the attention of:
Mr. Frédéric Oudéa
Chief Executive Officer
Société Générale
17 cours Valmy
92800 Puteaux
Paris, December 4, 2017
Subject: Risks from supporting LNG terminals and other extreme fossil fuels
We write to you as a group of civil society organizations concerning your institution’s current support in advising and potentially financing two of NextDecade’s proposed projects in Texas, USA: the fracked-gas Rio Bravo Pipeline in South Texas, and Rio Grande LNG, a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal in the Rio Grande Valley. These projects would hurt communities, wreck ecosystems, and lock in decades of climate-killing emissions.
Since 2016, two international investment banks have withdrawn from fracked-gas LNG export terminals in the Rio Grande Valley. In 2016, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group ended its advisory mandate for the Rio Grande LNG terminal in which Société Générale is currently involved. BNP Paribas recently announced it will not finance LNG terminals that predominantly liquefy and export gas from shale. As a direct result of this new commitment, BNP Paribas will not renew its advisory mandate for Texas LNG and will not finance this specific project, and it will not lend any support to any LNG terminals in the United States.
In the wake of these decisions, we request that Société Générale follow suit and withdraw its financial support of the Rio Bravo Pipeline and Rio Grande LNG terminal in Texas..
Additionally we request that your bank make a public commitment that it will refuse direct or indirect involvement in investing, financing, arranging, or otherwise facilitating the development of new gas pipelines and LNG terminals in North America. We also request that you match and exceed the action taken by BNP Paribas by adopting a policy which excludes extreme fossil fuel projects and companies significantly active in these sectors from any new support.
The proposed Rio Grande LNG terminal is part of a new slate of planned extreme fossil fuel infrastructure in North America. The South Texas region’s hydraulic fracturing boom of the last decade has contaminated water, damaged community health, and left the fossil fuel industry with a glut of gas. Energy companies are eager to open new export markets for fracked gas in the form of LNG. To achieve their objectives, there are currently 56 proposed or existing LNG export terminals in North America, mostly concentrated on the Gulf Coast, a region already devastated by the oil and gas industry.
LNG has an enormous climate footprint, due to methane leakage throughout its lifecycle and the significant amount of energy required to transport and freeze gas for export. Estimates of greenhouse gas emissions from LNG supply chains are nearly double those of average pipeline supply chains; from a climate perspective, exported LNG may be even worse than coal as a source of energy. In addition, the construction of new export terminals is a direct incentive to producing more shale gas from fracking, which is also linked to severe environmental and health impacts.
Exploitation of new fossil fuel reserves and the building of new LNG terminals is impossible to reconcile with the goal of keeping global warming well below 2°C and aiming for 1.5°C. Banks that fail to demonstrate their commitment to fighting climate change by ruling out extreme fossil fuels by the end of 2018 -- that are, on the contrary, directly involved in the building of new extreme fossil fuel infrastructure -- risk damage to their environmental reputation and will be the target of anti-LNG organizing efforts.
We wish to demonstrate the determination that has been shown, and will continue to be shown, by a global network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are focused on preventing the development of new fossil fuel infrastructure, particularly highly energy-intensive infrastructure. As an international coalition, we are highly concerned about the global climate impacts of the construction of new fracked-gas infrastructure, including LNG terminals.
Société Générale has signed the Equator Principles and adopted additional policies that restrict financing for projects that would degrade critical habitats, impact Indigenous peoples, and significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions. Staying involved in the Rio Bravo pipeline and the Rio Grande LNG terminal, as well as supporting other LNG terminals and related infrastructure, would be inconsistent with your environmental, social, and governance commitments.
On the road to COP21 in 2015, NGOs were focused on cutting financial support to coal. Now we’re looking at stopping financing and investments into extreme fossil fuels more broadly, including fracked gas, tar sands, Arctic and deepwater drilling, and LNG. Because of the massive buildout of new gas infrastructure planned all over the world, gas is becoming a sector raising serious reputational risks for banks that fail to adopt policies to exit from this sector.
The Paris Agreement requires governments to do a “stocktake” of their progress toward reducing their emissions to a level consistent with the target of 1.5° or well below 2°, and it highlights the important role of finance in enabling the target to be met. The December 2018 Katowice Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN environmental treaty marks the beginning of the stocktake process. Ahead of this conference, corporations should also take stock of their progress in aligning their policies and practices with the Paris goals.
Many financial institutions have taken steps away from coal, but these alone are insufficient — banks must also halt their financing of other extreme fossil fuels. We call on global banks to establish policies immediately, ahead of the COP in 2018, that align their actions with their stated support for averting climate disaster and respecting Indigenous and human rights. This must include exiting the gas sector, in particular the LNG sector.
We await a response to this request by the end of December. After this date, we will intensify our campaign toward Société Générale, at the international level, until COP24 and beyond.
Best regards,
198 Methods
350.org
Action South Texas
All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church
Alofa tuvalu
Athens County (Ohio) Fracking Action Network
Attac Austria
Awesome Women in Action
BankTrack
Berks Gas Truth
Both ENDS
Brownsville Kiddie Health Center
CARS-LaCrosse Centar za životnu sredinu/ Friends of the Earth Bosnia and Herzegovina
Center for International Environmental Law
CESTA FOE El Salvador
Change Partnership
Citizens Coalition for a Safe community
Citizens for Clean Water
Coordination Climat Justice Sociale, Genève
Corporate Europe Observatory
CSIA- Nitassinan
Earthworks
Ecologistas en Acción
Fair Finance France
Finance & Trade Watch
Food & Water Europe
Food & Water Watch
Foundation Development YES - Open-Pit MInes NO
Fracking Free Ireland (Brussels)
Friends of Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge
Friends of Laguna Madre
Friends of the Earth Australia
Friends of the Earth Brisbane, Australia, Climate Frontlines
Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Friends of the Earth Europe
Friends of the Earth Ghana
Friends of the Earth International
Friends of the Earth Ireland
Friends of the Earth Japan
Friends of the Earth Mozambique
Friends of the Earth Sierra Leone
Friends of the Earth U.S.
Frontera Progressives
Fundacja "Rozwoj TAK - Odkrywki NIE"
Gastivists
Good Neighbor Steering Committee
Greenpeace France
Groundwork - Friends of the Earth South Africa
Idle No More SF Bay
International Oil Working Group
Irving Impact
Friends of the Earth Mozambique
Jubilee Australia
Le Réseau Action Climat France
Legambiente Lecco
Les Amis de la Terre – FoE France
Liveable Arlington
Long Island Village
Love Leitrim
Lower Rio Grande Valley Sierra Club
Manuel's Restaurant
Marine Salvage and Service Inc.
Market Forces
Milieudefensie
New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance
NGO Forum on ADB is signing on
No Fracking Ireland
Not Here, Not Anywhere
Observatori del Deute en la Globalització
Oil Change International
Our Revolution Texas RGV
Oxfam People & Planet
Rainforest Action Network
Rochester People’s Climate Coalition
Re:Common REFEDD - French Student Network For Sustainability
Rio Grande International Study Center (Laredo, Texas)
Rio Grande Valley Coalition for Healthy Children
Save RGV from LNG
Secours Catholique SEE Change Net
Shrimpers and Fisherman of the RGV
Sierra Club
Síle Mills
South Texas Human Rights Center
Students for a Just & Stable Future
Students of Color Environmental Collective
Sustainable Energy & Economy Network
Texas Physicians for Social Responsibility
The Corner House
The Democracy Center
The Esto’k Gna - the Carrizo Comecrudo tribe
Urgewald
UTRGV Environmental Awareness Club
Vera Scroggins Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International
WoMin African gender and extractives alliance