Energy Poverty, Climate Change & the World Bank
The United Nations has declared 2012 as the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All. Access to energy is a cornerstone to meeting basic livelihood needs, and holds enormous implications for health, gender equality and climate change. Throughout the Global South, 2.7 billion people rely on traditional biomass for cooking. The use of wood, coal and agricultural waste in rudimentary cooking stoves causes more than 1.5 million deaths each year from chronic lung disease and child pneumonia. Deforestation in sub-Saharan Africa, a key source of CO2 emissions, is largely due to the use of wood for cooking and in charcoal production.

L’économie internationale et la transparence

L’un des problèmes clés sous-jacents à la crise financière de 2008 a été le manque de transparence dans l’économie internationale. Ces dernières décennies ont vu se propager une structure financière parallèle faite de paradis fiscaux, de juridictions opaques, d’entreprises déguisées, de sociétés écrans et des simulacres de fondations, des systèmes utilisés dans la moitié de tous les mouvements de transactions commerciales et de capitaux. Comme l’opacité en est la caractéristique principale, cette économie parallèle sert au blanchiment d’argent et aux opérations d’évasion fiscale favorisant la corruption, la criminalité et le commerce par delà les frontières.   

Transparency and the International Economy
One of the key issues underlying the 2008 financial crisis was the lack of transparency in the international economy. Over the last several decades, a “shadow” financial structure has developed comprised of tax havens, secrecy jurisdictions, disguised corporations, shell companies and bogus foundations. This system is now so large that half of all global trade and capital movements pass through it. Since secrecy is its defining feature, the shadow economy is used for money laundering and the movement of corrupt, criminal and commercial tax- evading money across borders.  

I’d like to begin by identifying several elements in the Guiding Principles that are useful to assess the current legal and policy framework in Canada regarding human rights and the overseas operations of Canadian extractive companies.