#SBI – Adani Deal: Pure Banking, Nothing Else? Far away from media glare and terrorist conspiracies of killing innocent children and taking citizens hostage to prove a point about whose God is greater, there is trouble brewing in the Great Barrier Reef. This majestic reef, a bio-diversity hotspot is in danger and India’s largest bank, SBI, is funding this destruction. No, don’t get us wrong, we are not diminishing the reality of terrorism. Some acts of terrorism are extremist-religious in nature; some are carried out purely in the name of money. Those acts of terrorism, carried out by mighty corporate houses, hand-in-glove with our governments, see no harm in destroying vast amounts of forest, displacing communities and indigenous people in thousands, just like how Taliban sees no harm in killing innocent school-going children and enslaving hundreds of women. Some like to call what SBI and Adani are up to as industrial or environmental terrorism. We can safely assume that we won’t act on climate change since we don’t see any heads rolling. Nor would we act on climate change as long as we are comfy in the security of our own warm homes. If only the trees could speak. If only the faceless communities could fight against millions of dollars of greed money and government apathy. The icon Great Barrier Reef is in danger as our planet continues to warm up to dangerous levels… Wait a minute, why should I bother about Great Barrier Reef? How I’m I connected to what’s happening in some corner of this planet? Well, the most important reason why we should be bothered about the possible destruction of Great Barrier Reef is because an Indian bank is funding this mindless act of environmental destruction. Yes, SBI. India’s largest bank. The one that evokes feelings of trust and assurance. And just when we thought Indian banks are stingy, we have State Bank of India signing a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with Adani to fund their Australian coal project with $ 1 billion. Our SBI has agreed to finance Adani’s project which has been rejected by major banks worldwide (that’s like my Indian bank!) and it will be responsible for the mindless destruction in Great Barrier Reef. This project will release 60 million tons of coal per year and many more millions of tons of carbon dioxide in the air. This added carbon in our atmosphere will do no good to not just the people living there, but also to Indians. A study has estimated that India, with a coastline of 7516 kms is many times more susceptible to climate change related disasters. Coal is already creating massive destruction in our climatic patterns and any addition is just not worth the time and money which goes into generating, consuming and dealing with the effects of coal powered electricity. With the increase in market price fluctuations, the future of coal in long term energy plans is very grim. China itself is reducing its carbon output in the wake of growing air pollution concerns. Indian power minister Piyush Goyal himself stated that India ‘may’ be able to stop its coal imports in the coming few years, putting a huge question mark on this project’s viability. Why the big rush then? Okay, hold on. What is actually happening? What is this project all about? So, Adani’s coal project in Australia includes a coal part that will have a shipping lane through the heart of Great Barrier Reef. This reef is an ecological and bio-diversity hotspot. It is the world’s most extensive coral reef system, the world’s largest living structure. Coral reefs are basically a community of living organisms, housing tens of thousands of marine life and species. Some reports suggest that Great Barrier Reef houses about 10% of the world’s total fish species. Australia’s Queensland is the biggest coal producing state, feeding black gold to many ports through long train lines. Adani Enterprises is the largest coal importer of India and they purchased Abbot Point Terminal in Queensland in 2011 with a hope of increasing their coal share in Indian market. The scale of mining operations are growing and quite obviously, Adani wants to tap into the profit by expanding its operations. The Galilee Basin is one of the most coal-endowed sites and SBI’s loan to Adani will see this basin being developed to take out as much as 60 million tons of coal per year and ship it through the ecologically fragile Great Barrier Reef. The reason why people, communities and environmentalists are opposing this project is because of it’s destructive nature. The Great Barrier Reef would just be the first of its long list of victims. It’s like a huge cycle; dredging activities and increased traffic in and around that area will eventually harm the sensitive reef, subsequently impacting marine ecology and the coal transported and burned will add more carbon in the atmosphere, which will return to haunt the reef for a very long time. This project is toxic; environmentally, economically and socially. There are also speculations that Adani might have got around getting a life-saving amount from SBI due to his proximity to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Adani company has also been accused of bribery, illegal construction and high corruption which gives off enough bad vibes to their apparent interest in saving our crucial ecology. So what, doesn’t India need more coal anyway? We are facing an energy crisis… Though this project will open up billion dollars worth of coal reserves and make it available to India, it will also extract billions of tons of coal and sediments that would be disastrous for all of humanity and injurious to the communities living in developing and under-developed countries. Sure, coal ‘may’ get cheaper, but the cost of dealing with coal-induced climate change is getting expensive by the year. Last heard, many people and organizations are still involved in relief operations for the recent flood marathon witnessed in India. Let’s face it, coal power projects have been in troubled waters since quite some time and it doesn’t look like its going to change anytime soon. Communities will continue to fight for their rights, with or without any ‘influence’ from social organizations. Coal blocks will continue to be embroiled in corruption controversies as authorities will continue using illegal means to silence opposition. Market prices will keep fluctuating while an average Indian will keep worrying about inflated power bills. While all this is happening, more and more people will keep getting sick due to massive levels of air pollution in our cities. We would probably be living in a ‘grey’ atmosphere if the suspended particulate matter would have had any color to them. No wonder that our country’s own wonder of the world, Taj Mahal, is getting discolored from heavy air pollution. The cost of treatment will keep getting higher as we would lose more workdays because of ill-health. Air pollution is the fifth-largest killer in India, just after poor nutrition. Over 140 cities exceed the acceptable standards of polluting particles. Surely this madness has to stop somewhere. Why not cut back on coal when it’s running on empty? Something that is dirty, unhealthy, toxic, economically crippling and disastrous to our planet cannot possibly lift India out of its energy poverty. After China’s last move, all eyes are on India, which is the third largest polluting country in the world, after US and China. It’s high time we increased our efforts in making renewable energy reach its rightfully deserved level of grid parity. Okay, so what can be done about this? Well, we can urge SBI to get out of this disastrous project right away and join the growing movement of financiers saying no to new coal. It’s time we tell our bank that we don’t need dirty coal that will increase climate change and destroy Great Barrier Reef while hardly delivering its empty promises of lifting India out of its energy poverty. world.350.org/dirtetalks/2014/12/19/sbi-adani-deal-pure-banking-nothing-else/
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 11:56:26 +0000
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