Article
Non-compliance with the OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises - ESB
....GLAN is submitting a complaint in accordance with the OECD MNE Guidelines. The complaint is supported by Christian Aid, the Centro de Investigación y Educación Popular (CINEP), the Colectivo de Abogados ‘José Alvear Restrepo’ (CAJAR), the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA), Arbeitsgruppe Schweiz Kolumbien (ask!), and ABColombia. The complaint relates to the activities of a multinational enterprise (MNE) which owns and operates the Cerrejón mine in Colombia...ESB, a company which is 95 percent owned by the Irish state, has purchased millions of tonnes of coal from Cerrejón over the past two decades. Two-thirds of the coal burned at ESB’s Moneypoint power station in County Clare since 2001 has come from Cerrejón...ESB is an MNE for the purposes of the MNE Guidelines. The MNE Guidelines set certain minimum standards for multinational enterprises. In particular, MNEs must identify, and seek to prevent or mitigate, adverse impacts which are directly linked to their operations. They must also satisfy certain disclosure obligations. By maintaining its relationship with Cerrejón despite the adverse impacts caused by the mine, and by refusing to be transparent about that relationship, ESB has failed to comply with the MNE Guidelines. Failures to comply with specific provisions within the Guidelines are set out below...