Parade Led by Indigenous Frontline Activists to Demand Global Finance Watchdog Ends Finance for Fossil Fuels
Peoples' Forum for Climate Justice and Financial Regulation kicking off in Basel on Thursday
Basel, Switzerland - 20 June 2023 - As central bank governors gather to discuss the rules of the financial system at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), indigenous and frontline activists fighting oil and gas projects on the ground also come together in Basel with hundreds of campaigners from Europe to demand the global financial watchdog uses its power to cut off financial flows to fossil fuels.
Between 22 and 25 June, the Peoples' Forum for Climate Justice and Financial Regulation will host a range of artistic street actions, stories from the frontlines of fossil fuel resistance, strategic discussions and workshops.
A highlight will be the Peoples' Parade on Saturday, 24 June, which will take the demand to end fossil finance straight to the doorstep of the BIS. The parade will start at 13.30 at Kaserne (Klybeckstrasse 1b, 4057 Basel) and make its way through town with various stops for speeches and artistic interventions along the way to the BIS.
María Elena Foronda Farro, who will be joining the events and whose fight against oil exploitation on the Peruvian coast and Amazon rainforest has been recognised with the Goldman Environment Prize, says:
"In their reckless chase after corporate profits, banks keep funding fossil fuel projects that push us into climate breakdown and destroy our homes and livelihoods around the world. The watchdogs of the global financial system need to rein in the banks and stop fossil finance once and for all.
The BIS has already defined crypto assets as high-risk investments, which means that banks who invest in them, have to cover for potential losses themselves. We demand the same for fossil fuels, which would effectively stop new investments in fossil fuel projects overnight. Ending fossil finance is an obvious immediate step towards a global financial system that puts the wellbeing of people before corporate profits."
Another moving moment of the programme will be an an artistic tribute to assassinated environmental defenders in Margarethenpark (Gundeldingerstrasse 57 - 129) on Friday, 23 June from 19.30-21.30. The tribute will exhibit artistic portraits of people from all continents who were murdered for protecting land, water and nature, while frontline activists will share stories of resistance to fossil fuel projects.
María Elena says:
“Oil extraction is killing environmental defenders in my country and it is European money that finances these crimes. I'm in Basel to put pressure on financial regulators to stop the financing of the fossil fuel industry that threatens the lives of so many people in Peru and all over the world.”
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