Follow the Money / key documents

Financial institutions from countries such as China, Brazil, India and Thailand are playing an increasingly active role in financing infrastructure and mining projects around the world. With new loan approvals of $36 billion, China Exim Bank for example became the world’s largest export credit agency in 2007. Although they invest in environmentally sensitive sectors, many emerging financiers do not yet apply internationally accepted standards in their projects.

This new report discusses the experience with environmental standards and how it can be useful for new financiers.

As the World Bank plunges back into the large dam business, the legacy of its past dam projects remains unresolved. This briefing paper highlights the ongoing social, environmental and economic problems of a number of Bank-funded dams, and provides recommendations to address this legacy.

As part of its going-out strategy, China is rapidly expanding its economic cooperation with Africa. China Exim Bank plays an important role in this cooperation. The policy bank is financing more than 250 projects in Africa, primarily in the infrastructure sector.

(19 September 2003 – Dubai) As World Bank representatives gather in Dubai for the 2003 World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings, Environmental Defense, Friends of the Earth, and International Rivers Network today released a report in response to the World Bank’s new "high–risk/high–reward" strategy in the water, forestry, and extractive industries sectors. The report, Gambling With People’s Lives, analyzes the World Bank’s ability to manage social and environmental risks in high–risk projects and to learn from its past mistakes. The report is available at www.foe.org (or, IRN direct link).

In ancient Greece, a nine-headed snake called Hydra lived in the marshes of Lerna. She was the daughter of a giant and a nymph, and the sister of Sphynx, Cerberos, and Chimaera. Again and again, Hydra ravaged the fields, destroyed the crops and devoured the cattle of the local farmers. At last, King Eurystheus asked the Greek hero Herakles to bring Hydra’s reign of terror to an end. A horrible battle unfolded in the marshes of Lerna. Every time Herakles cut off one of the serpent’s heads, two new ones grew from the ghastly body. In the end, of course, the courage of the hero prevailed over the serpent’s evil blood.