At UN. Bank of America Chair Chad Holliday Tells Inner City Press Coal May Be Right For Africa: Flood Wall Street

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 22, more here -- While environmental activists Flood Wall Street in lower Manhattan, on September 22 Bank of America's chairman Charles Holliday appeared at a UN press conference about sustainable energy.

  This was ironic, because Bank of America's funding of mountain-top removal coal mining has led to protests of its shareholders' meeting as well as downtown.

  Inner City Press asked Holliday about mountain-top removal coal mining, and he answered about weighing investments, and the coal might be right for Africa. He is celebrated within Ban Ki-moon's UN: Ban put him atop Sustainable Energy for All. This is today's UN.

  When the People's Climate March assembled at Manhattan's Columbus Circle on September 21, there were anti-corporate puppets in front of the Trump International Hotel and Tower, speeches by coal miners and from the Marshall Islands.

   Many called on the UN to do better. But UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon joined the march mid-way, at Radio City Musical Hall with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. Senator Chuck Schumer was on hand, walking by a Bronx contingent chanting how Fresh Direct has broken its promises.

  Inner City Press' 90 second video of the march is here.

  The UN's or "BKM" (Ban Ki-moon) Climate Summit will feature Cargill and Walmart, Credit Agricole and Bank of America. The last of these is the first, in terms of funding mountain top coal removal. These are the contradiction. Inner City Press tweeted photos on @InnerCityPress. More to follow.

  The night before the People's Climate March, the UN buildings on First Avenue lit up with photos and footage of trees and fish and written messages. It is called "illUmiNations." Inner City Press video here.

   Inner City Press late on September 19, after covering the Ukraine, Iraq, Ebola and Iran nuclear meetings inside the UN, went out and found a sort of trial run for the screeningtaking place on First Avenue, already lined with NYPD cement blocks. Photo here.

   Looking back at the UN's press release for the upcoming "VIP Press Screening" -- hard to know how they could exclude non-VIPs from it, or why they would want to -- there were laudatory quotes about UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and: 

Obscura Digital has staged similar large-scale architectural mapping projection events on the Sydney Opera House, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. For examples of previous work, please visit the following linkhttp://wdrv.it/1tx7Emd.

 In that video compilation, well worth watching, there are also corporate projects for Coca-Cola and YouTube owned by Google, with history at the UN. 

  A message Inner City Press photographed on September 19, here,  was "In nature's economy, the currency is not money but life." Is this true of Coca-Cola?

   There are questions about the UN's UNcritical approach to corporations and corporate "partnerships."

   In the run up to the UN's September 23 Climate Summit, the UN put out a media advisory promoting the participation of 14 corporations ranging from Saudi Aramco through Cargill, McDonald's and Walmart to Bank of America and Credit Agricole. 

  Inner City Press on September 16 asked Summit promoter Robert Orr how these 14 were selected for listing in the media advisory, and if the UN had reviewed their wider record. For example, the recent court decision involving Cargill and child slavery in Cote d'Ivoire, orSaudi Aramco not allowing employees in Saudi Arabia to protest.

   Orr mentioned a luncheon during the summit about carbon pricing and the UN Global Compact, a branch of the UN which repeatedly says it does not enforce substantive standards, only encourages reporting and dialogue.  Well, Saudi Aramco did not respond to the complaint about “employees allegedly dismissed after being detained for participation in civil rights protests in Saudi Arabia.”

   And what of the environment? Bank of America has been the number one funder of mountain-top removal coal mining, but Ban Ki-moon made it chairman the chief of his Sustainable Energy for All initiative.

  On behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access, Inner City Press asked that those making commitments, like the 14 corporations named, hold question and answer sessions during the summit. We'll see.

   

UN Sustainable Energy Headed by B of A, Suntech Feted as by Clinton Global Initiative

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 24 -- The UN's lax approach to financial conflicts of interest and corporate domination were both on display Monday behind high security in the UN's North Lawn building.

  There was also double-dipping, in which the Suntech solar panel firm was praised both at Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Sustainable Energy for All event Monday, after receiving praise for the same project Sunday across time at the Clinton Global Initiative, in front of Ban Ki-moon.

  The UN's September 24 press release announced the continuation as chairman of Chad Holliday of Bank of America, which is among the largest funders of moutaintop removal coal mining: hardly sustainable.

  The UN press release continued that "At today’s event, significant new commitments to action in support of achieving Sustainable Energy for All were also announced. These include:

Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd., the world's largest producer of solar panels, will donate up to 300 kilowatts of solar panels to the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, to help the hospital reduce its dependence on expensive diesel generators and improve access to electricity."

  Back in February 2011, Suntech announced it had an $80 million contract for solar panels for UN Peacekeeping missions. But then-Peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy told Inner City Press he'd never heard of it, and Suntech was not then listed in the UN's Vendor database.

  No wonder: it is a conflict of interest to be on the UN's advisory board on a topic, as the CEO of Suntech is, and to be selling it a product, while not even being listed.

  In terms of following up on the UN Peacekeeping contract, Le Roy's successor Herve Ladsous, also French, refuses to answer any Inner Cithy Press questions, including on helping recruit militia in the Congo, after being exposed proposing that the UN use drones. Sources in the UN's C-34 Committee say the French firm Thales is already ready. And so it goes at the UN.

At UN, Ban Defends Chair of BofA, Mountaintop Removal, Orr Unaware

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 1 -- With Bank of America being protested not only for its bailout and corporate welfare but specifically as the largest funder of mountaintop removal coal mining, why did the UN make BofA chairman Charles "Chad" Holliday the co-chair of its "High Level Group on Sustainable Energy for All"?

Inner City Press asked the UN spokesman on October 13, after attending a protest of Bank of America on the topic in lower Manhattan, across Broadway from the Occupy Wall Street encampment on Liberty Street. Spokesman Martin Nesirky said he would check with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Hearing nothing back, when Ban held a press conference on November 1 about sustainable energy, Inner City Press sought to ask Ban the question directly. Nesirky did not allow the question from Inner City Press. But in the hallway outside, Inner City Press did ask Ban. As transcribed by the UN:

Inner City Press: [inaudible] Bank of America is considered number one taking off the tops of mountains to take out coal, and has been protested for that. So on October 13th I asked here, what do you think of taking off the top of mountains for coal, and why is the guy [Charles Holliday] co-Chairman of the Group [High-level Group on Sustainable Energy for All]?

SG Ban Ki-moon: His record is quite clear, in the area of development, and particularly on energy issues. He is the Chairman of the World Council for Sustainable Development. He was CEO of Dupont where Dupont set an exemplary record in terms of energy. I have been, we have been working with him quite a long time. That is why he is nominated as Co-Chair of this group. I am sure that he will lead this sustainable energy group very well.

While to some being the CEO of Dupont is equally dubious, Ban Ki-moon did not answer on the question on mountaintop removal coal mining. Inner City Press went back into the briefing room and asked Assistant Secretary General Robert Orr what he and Ban thought of mountaintop removal mining.

Orr said that "Chad Holliday is a giant in business around the world." Calling mountaintop removal mining "a specific question" that Inner City Press should ask Bank of America about, Orr went on to say "I am not even aware of the issue you are raising." Video here, from Minute 18:40.

Not only did Inner City Press asked Ban's (and Orr's) spokesman about the practice on October 13 -- any cursory review of environmentalist literature identifies the issue. Inner City Press sought to ask a follow up, if there was any civil society or environmental activist input in the UN process, but spokesman Nesirky cut in.

(c) MRLee
From right, Ban, Orr, TV: Bank of America, #OWS and MTR not shown or known

Some wondered why Nesirky went to such lengths not to allow the question to be asked of Ban Ki-moon. Did he not want Ban mouthing these answers to appear on camera?

Soung-ah Choi of his (and / or Ban's) office tried to cut off the question even in the hall. First she claimed that Ban inside "answered all the questions." Then after the question was posed, and before Ban graciously if disappointingly answered, she said "we'll get back to you."

Beyond claiming to be unaware of basic environmental issues, the UN's Ban Ki-moon team claims to be paying attention to Occupy Wall Street. Its knee-jerk defense and praise of Bank of America and its involvement in mountaintop removal coal mining are telling and troubling. Watch this site.

At UN, To Avoid Bank Question to Ban, Spokesman Replays UNESCO

By Matthew Russell Lee, Review

UNITED NATIONS, November 1 -- When UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived, 13 minutes late, for a 30 minute press conference on Tuesday, his spokesman Martin Nesirky announced that Ban would take "at least one question."

One assumed, given Nesirky's previous insistence on limiting the topics that can be asked about, that this question would be about Ban's "High Level Group on Sustainable Energy," a topic on which Inner City Press questioned Nesirky back on October 13.

That question concerned why Ban put the chairman of Bank of America, which is been multiply protested as being the number one funder of mountain top removal coal mining, on his "Sustainable" energy group.

When question time came, more extended due to broken UN technology to connect in a speaker from Sierra Leone, Nesirky did everything possible not to take the Bank of America question from Inner City Press.

Nesirky even called on a journalist who had no hand raised, just to see if a question could be cajoled to kill the time. Previously at the stakeout after Ban Ki-moon cajoled re-election to a second five year term as Secretary General, Nesirky was so desperate for a friendly question that he called on an intern from the UN's own radio station, who asked Ban for his message to the world's children.

(Nesirky later blamed this on the intern for being at the stakeout, when for the record it was not her fault.)

As Inner City Press said, "Sustainable energy question," Nesirky took two questions about UNESCO, after having already said Ban had spoken (if not answered) on the topic the previous day. Then Nesirky said there was no more time to question Ban, and Ban left.

Inner City Press did manage, despite blockage by another member of Nesirky's or Ban's team, to ask the question, the gracious if disappointing answer to which will be reported in a separate story. Between the 12 and 12:30 press conferences, Nesirky canceled the daily noon briefing, just as he abruptly ended it on Monday with questions still outstanding.

Nesirky's still relatively new Deputy, Eduardo Del Buey, handled the next press conference, about the UN Mine Action Service in Libya. Inner City Press asked a question, then was not allowed a follow up question by Del Buey - who proceeded to allow the next journalist to follow up. (We will have a separate story about the substance of the Mine Action press conference as well.)

Last Friday October 28 with Del Buey conducting the noon briefing, numerous UN correspondents said things hit a new low, with no answers provided if Del Buey did not have a prepared answer or "line" with him.

Several said to Inner City Press that it is shameful that the UN is being run, or represented, in this fashion by Nesirky and sometimes Del Buey.

Several have proposed boycotting the briefing. Whlie that would seem to just give them what they want, what the other options are remains unclear. Nesirky still sometimes jokes, and it's appreciated, but most see him as getting worse. "They made him this way," as one correspondent put it, referring not only to Ban but his whole team of senior advisers.

Inner City Press ended up asking Del Buey if he would just read out the "lines," since they had been prepared, so that the world would know what Ban's UN thinks. That not how we do it, Del Buey replied.

Inner City Press considered writing a review of Friday's surreal briefing but decided against it -- again, Del Buey is still relatively new. Ultimately, Nesirky is responsible for his Office, and Ban despite Tuesday gracious hallway answer is responsible for Nesirky. Watch this site.