Test Cases for Banks – Four Dodgy Coal Deals to Watch This Year “Will the trend for rising coal finance extended by commercial banks – which we identified in our Banking on Coal 2014 report back in October – turn around any time soon, in line with now increasingly emphatic calls and tangible moves to divest from fossil fuels? Or will the banks, led by the Top 20 coal banks, continue to provide financial life support to coal-mining companies and coal-dependent energy utilities?,” writes Yann Louvel and Greig Aitken from BankTrack. Suggested Tweet: #Climate test cases for banks – 4 dodgy #coal deals to watch in 2015 http://bit.ly/1K9KU15 #BanksQuitCoal pic.twitter.com/xdvSF8LVYv @BankTrack Southern African Women Stand Their Ground Against Big Coal“More than 50 grassroots women activists gathered from around the region in late-January 2015 to stand their ground against Big Coal. Their six-day exchange and strategy meeting involved dozens of organisations in South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana … The regional movement of women fighting Big Coal and demanding an alternative is one critical force now gaining traction,” write Samantha Hargreaves and Hibist Kassa in AllAfrica.com. Suggested Tweet: Southern African Women Stand Their Ground Against Big #Coal http://bit.ly/1CuamgK #SouthAfrica #Zimbabwe #Botswana #Mozambique #Zambia Why Were Billions Handed Out To An Indian Coal Mining Company That Didn’t Need It?“The [Queensland Premier Campbell] Newman government was handing an Indian billionaire billions of dollars of taxpayer money for literally – literally – no reason … Adani’s statement that it doesn’t need taxpayer assistance to get its enormous, controversial 60-year Carmichael coal project off the ground should have Queenslanders scratching their heads as to why it was being offered in the first place,” writes Richard Denniss, the Executive Director of The Australia Institute in The Guardian. Suggested Tweet: Why was Newman handing out billions to #Adani for Galilee Basin #coal project? http://bit.ly/16jPlY5 @TheAusInstitute |