Thursday
Jun142012
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Stakeholder Forum's budget
Jun 14, 2012 Greens Stakeholder Forum, readers may recall, is the body that is hoping to get a World Environmental Organisation put in place at the Rio+20 conference, thus putting environmental questions beyond the reach of the democratic process. Black's Whitewash blog has managed to get hold of what appears to be their budget for the conference.
It's very, very big.
Reader Comments (6)
'Stakeholder Forum has been the main coordinating mechanism used by the UK Government to gauge UK stakeholder views for intergovernmental meetings.' - Wikipedia.
Having looked at the budget - presumably a budget spread over three years - from when? to when? (2010 - 2012?) - and bearing in mind the above quote from Wiki, it would seem that the old circularity argument springs to the fore.
They are not alone, either. As I ripped open my copy of Private Eye yesterday, a leaflet from friends of the earth fell out wittering on about profit before planet. Who is making deals with your government?
Oil companies. Supermarkets. Petro-chemical firms. Airlines. Energy companies. Globally they spend millions of pounds undermining environmental policy, whilst making huge profits.
etc. etc. ........and 'Oil companies are funding 'independent thinktanks', designed to undermine serious climate change research.'
'They sabotaged Kyoto and crippled Copenhagen.'
'In 1997 and again in 2009 the world came together to try to solve the catastrophic threat of climate change. Both times the strong and fair action needed didn't happen. Why? Because of the power of big business and its lobby groups.'
'Big business knows the power of political lobbying and how to use it.'
'But so do we. Friends of the Earth are the most effective environmental campaigners in the world. We may not have the vast sums behind us that big busines has, but we have 40 years campaigning and political lobbying experience. So we know how to take on, and beat, the corporate bullies.'
[If you have 40 years experience, how come you weren't able to stop the sabotage of Kyoto and the crippling of Copenhagen?]
'In 2005 we campaigned for stronger rules on the environmental impact of big UK companies. We won. In 2007 we lobbied against Shell's use of UK taxpayers' money to build a new pipeline in Russia. We won. And in 2008, as a result of four years campaigning by us, the Government introduced a landmark Climate Change Bill. We won.'
Blah, blah, blah, oh and by the way, give us £5 a month.
I suppose they are all ratcheting up the pressure for Rio+20 and spending vast amounts of cash doing so.
The problem with Stakeholder Forum is that it is taxpayer money to lobby the government (I assume), hence the circularity argument. I am happy to stand corrected, if only to gain some satisfaction that my taxes are not being used for this purpose.
As a UK Citizen, I must be a "stakeholder" in this "Forum".
I can tell you that I have not been consulted, nor agreed to its budget.
Has anyone else?
From the FAQ's on their website -
"Stakeholder Forum is funded by a combination of Foundations, charitable trusts, governments and UN agencies. Stakeholder Forum only takes money from organisations and institutions who can demonstrate a commitment to advancing progress towards the achievement of sustainable development."
I'd like to see a list of their major sources of funding. Are my taxes helping to pay for this?
No mention in their 2011 annual report of the size of their income, but here are their income sources for 2010 and 2011
UN and Intergovernmental organisations 37% 28%
EU Governments 23% 24%
UK Government 20% 1%
Canadian Government 7% 4%
NGOs 10% 4%
Business 3% 0%
Monaco Government 0% 5%
Charitable Foundations 0% 34%
They won't be flying down to Rio by budget airline then. Pictures of the new Ryanair service here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dD3WNaGFUU&feature=related
Another fine example of "green democracy". Governments and the UN paying to have themselves lobbied. "Stakeholder Forum" - sounds so innocuous and all inclusive.
Interesting changes to their funding sources.
2009 - practically all government
2010 - UN and Government
2011 - Suddenly find 34% from "charitable foundations" - up from more or less zero.
The Green Machine hard at work - on your dime.