Global Policy Forum

Today marks ten years since the beginning of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Talks to prepare for the 2002 Johannesburg summit are now taking place in Bali. But progress has been slow or non-existent, because of obstruction by northern developed countries and by the United States in particular, on a range of key environmental and social issues.

Above all, the US and others are opposing any moves towards corporate accountability – despite growing demands for an international agreement to

· Place duties on companies and directors to consider social and environmental issues in decision-making

· Guarantee rights for citizens and communities, including the right to a clean and healthy environment

· Set high standards of corporate behaviour on social, labour, environmental and human rights issues.

Friends of the Earth today publishes details of "Ten Planet Trashers", companies whose behaviour since Rio shows the need for binding rules on corporate behaviour.

The companies are:

1. EXXON MOBIL (Esso)

This company deserves to be at the top of any record of corporate irresponsibility, for its persistent and continuing attempts to prevent effective international action against dangerous man-made climate change. ExxonMobil was one of the prime movers behind George W Bush's decision to snub the Kyoto climate treaty last year and has run a 10 year campaign (often through font groups such as the Global Climate Coalition) against scientists and politicians who think we should reduce our dependence on oil, coal and gas.

2. AMEC

British construction company AMEC intended to be part of a consortium to build the planned Yusefeli dam in Turkey. If built, the Yusufeli Dam would flood 18 towns and villages, drown the homes of 15,000 people and displace a further 15,000. Affected communities have not been properly consulted and adequate plans for resettlement have not been made. AMEC withdrew from the Yusufeli construction consortium in March 2002, following a commercial review of the project, but continues its involvement in the project through its 46% shareholding in European construction firm SPIE. AMEC is also involved in the planned Chalillo Dam in Belize, as well the building of the environmentally destructive Birmingham Northern Relief Road.

3. PREMIER OIL

This UK based oil exploration company continues to operate in Burma, even though the Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the UK government, human rights and environment groups have all criticised Premier for its involvement in a country ruled by one of the world's most brutal military dictatorships. The company is also exploring for gas in Kirthar National Park, Pakistan, even though the activity was illegal when Premier first submitted its plans. Local people believe that pressure from Premier led to a weakening of Pakistani wildlife law.

4. ICI

ICI in Wilton, Teesside is the UK=s largest producer of the >gender bender= chemical alkylphenol ethoxylates. As part of its >clean-up= operation ICI simply pumps rinsing water from the reaction vessel straight into the River Tees without any form of treatment. ICI estimates that this results in 12 tonnes of the chemical entering the river each year. The River Tees flows into the Teesmouth Flats and Marshes, recognised as an internationally important wildlife site. Alkylphenol ethoxylates are used in industrial detergents even though safer alternatives are available, yet ICI claims that they will Amanufacture only those products that can be transported, used and disposed of safely.@

ICI in Runcorn, Merseyside has been highlighted as the Aworst performing site in Britain@ in a recent report commissioned by Friends of the Earth. The report revealed that the site does not even have the most basic environmental safeguards (for example, containment around chemical plants to capture spillages), uses out of date and polluting technologies (even though ICI have developed and marketed cleaner processes) and that from just 3 of the 18 different processes they operate there were around 250 unauthorised releases over an 18 month period.

5. SCOTTS

US corporation Scotts had to be promised "compensation" of £17 million by the UK Government earlier this year to stop destroying three of the UK's top wildlife sites through peat extraction. The sites covered by the deal are Thorne Moor Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Hatfield Moor SSSI, both in South Yorkshire, and Wedholme Flow SSSI in Cumbria.

6. BARCLAYS

An investigation by Friends of the Earth has discovered that the Barclays Group has used its customers' money to finance Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), one of the most destructive paper companies in the world. APP is clearing a large area of Indonesian rainforest and is involved in numerous land disputes with indigenous peoples. APP is responsible for clearing over 280,000 hectares of rainforest in the last 10 years and is planning to clear-cut another 300,000 hectares over the next 5 years. This means that in total APP will have cleared an area of wildlife rich rainforest four times the size of Greater London.

7. ASSOCIATED OCTEL

Associated Octel is one of the biggest releasers of cancer-causing chemicals in the UK (see FOE's Factorywatch project at www.foe.co.uk) and the world's largest manufacturers of lead additives for fuel. These products are banned in the US and across Europe but still sold by the company to developing countries.

8. AVENTIS/BAYER

Biotech company Aventis Crop Science UK Ltd is currently involved in a court case to block the publication of herbicide safety data by the Government. Aventis Crop Science UK Ltd want to use the herbicide, Liberty, to treat GM winter maize - despite safety concerns that it will enter the ground water. Aventis Crop Science UK Ltd is currently being purchased by the pesticide company Bayer – who also have a poor record for environmental pollution. The company has been accused of dumping highly toxic unlabelled pesticides in Nepal, posing a threat to the health of local people, risking contamination of the water supply and the soil. The company has been asked by the Royal Nepalese Government to help clean up the site - but has so far refused to do so.

9. BNFL

British Nuclear Fuels continues to lobby for an expanded civil nuclear power programme in the UK, Authoritative research by the Sussex University Science Policy Research Unit suggests that the company may seek a write off by the taxpayer for between £15.4 and £3.1 billion in corporate liabilities for this dangerous and uneconomic technology. BNFL recently opened the "THORP" reprocessing plant at Sellafield. Current Government estimates are that the level of Intermediate Level Nuclear Waste (ILW) will rise to 136,000 cubic metres by 2010. BNFL figures provided to the Government show that this amount would rise to 256,000 cubic metres if BNFL succeeds in reprocesses the amount of overseas spent fuel identified in the 1996/7 Business Plan for the THORP plant.

10. ASSOCIATED BRITISH PORTS

ABP is seeking permission to build a 202 hectare on Dibden Bay SSSI near Southampton. The proposed development is an important site for wildlife with international and national >protection=

· Solent and Southampton Water Special Protection Area (SPA) - foreshore

· Ramsar Site (Wetland of International Importance) - foreshore

· Solent Maritime candidate Special Area of Conservation (SAC) - adjacent waterway

· New Forest National Park B Dibden Bay site included in proposed boundary

· Dibden Bay Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)

· Hythe to Calshot Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest B foreshore.

Commenting, FOE Policy Director Tony Juniper said: "It is ten years to the day since the Rio Earth Summit. Over the last ten years we have seen big corporations in the developed world behave in a socially and environmentally destructive way in their own countries and particularly in the developing world. The case for common and binding standards of corporate behaviour has never been stronger. Yet the United States and other developed countries seem to have gone to the talks in Bali determined to see that no further progress is made. Citizens must make it clear to Governments that they want corporations brought under control as a matter of urgency."

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