Environment

In October 2004, an oil leak from a Shell pipeline caused long-lasting damage and contamination in the village of Goi in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. In 2008, a group of affected Nigerians filed a lawsuit against Shell and SPDC, its Nigerian subsidiary, in the Netherlands, with the help of Friends of Earth Nigeria and Milieudefensie. In January 2021, the court ruled in their favor. Read More

Goldman Sachs bank is a top target of a major new investigation by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) into the “greenwashing” of investment funds to fool investors. They aren't the only ones: Bank of New York Mellon and Deutsche Bank have also been investigated. At stake is the definition of what constitutes high ratings for 'environmental, social, and corporate governance' (ESG) funds which is not defined in U.S. law. Read More

Tendele Coal opened the Somkhele coal mine in 2007 in the uMkhanyakude district of the South African province of Kwa-Zulu Natal. The mine activities have contributed to water scarcity, water contamination, destruction of the local landscape and noise pollution. In addition the company has failed to properly relocate local people despite promises to do so. Read More

Ever since London-based Brazil Iron acquired mining rights in Chapada Diamantina, Piatã, Bahia, in 2011, two Quilombola communities home to 150 families, have been dealing with explosions, water contamination and damage to their crops. Quilombolas are descendents of escaped enslaved Afro-Brazilians that live in Quilombo settlements. Now the company wants to expand operations from 600,000 tons of ore per year to 10 million tons a year. Read More

Activists are calling on the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to stop funding the $3 billion Mandalika project on the island of Lombok in Indonesia - which is led by the Vinci Group - after the United Nations released a damning report on human rights abuses at the site. Read More

Tribal women from Andhra Pradesh, India, are standing up against a mining company, Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Granites, aiming to destroy their only livelihood: cashew trees which they have been cultivating for years. Read More

Over 1,000 scientists from 25 different countries staged protests during the week of April 4-9 following the release of the new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC). The protesters, who call themselves the Scientist Rebellion, sought to "highlight the urgency and injustice of the climate and ecological crisis." Read More

A court in Atlanta, Georgia, has ordered Coca-Cola to turn over documents relating to the violent eviction of hundreds of families in northern Cambodia in 2008 and 2009. The families were evicted to make way for sugar plantations planned by Mitr Phol, a Bangkok-based supplier to Coca-Cola. Read More

Lawyers for a group of some 1,200 Nicaraguan banana plantation workers appeared before the Paris Trial Court in an effort to force Dow Chemical, Occidental Chemical and Shell Oil to pay $1 billion in compensation for health problems caused by Nemagon, a pesticide sold by the three companies. Read More

Pascoe Sabido, a campaigner with Corporate Europe Observatory,* speaks by video with CorpWatch about the annual meeting of the countries that have ratified the United Nations Climate Change Convention that is currently taking place in Glasgow, Scotland. Read More