January 23, 2014
On 22 January 2014, the Berne Declaration (BD) and Greenpeace Switzerland gave away the 2014 Public Eye Awards. Between 26 November 2013 and 22 January 2014 over 280’000 people voted for their favorite in the race for the renowned award of shame, the Public Eye People’s Award.
The Jury Award goes to giant #Gap who steadfastly refuses to contribute to effective reforms in the textile industry. The People´s Award goes with a clear majority to the #Gazprom oil company; another clear example of responsible business conduct at the cost of people and environment. f irresponsible business conduct at the cost of people and the
environment. Gazprom is the first company to install an oil drilling platform, called Prirazlomnaya, in the offshore ice covered Arctic Pechora Sea. In December 2013, Gazprom became the first company in the world to start drilling for oil in the Arctic Barents Sea. Since the drilling began, the corporation has already violated several federal safety and environmental regulations.
Gazprom is responsible for sizeable oil spills in its land operations. With satellite images and field visits, Greenpeace Russia’s specialists have identified 206 oil spills across 6 oil fields where Gazprom conducts drilling operations. Gazprom has also been involved in an offshore drilling disaster that killed 53 people in December 2011, when the Kolskaya jack-up rig capsized during towing. The rig was under contract to a Gazprom subsidiary, which was never held directly responsible for the accident. However, their responsibility in this tragedy is obvious.
Regular cuts in budget and security measures in their towing operations contributed to the accident. The world has already seen how Shell, despite spending billions of dollars and investing years of effort, was entirely incapable of working safely in the Alaskan Arctic.
With Gazprom’s abysmal track record, the worst has to be feared for the pristine and vulnerable region. Russian taxpayers are at risk of paying for Gazprom’s misadventures in the Arctic and most likely also for any consequences of an oil spill in the Arctic region, along with the rest of the world.
The press conference, at which the winners were announced, turned into a lively debate about the downside of economic growth, the sheer unlimited power of multinational corporations and their lack of responsibility for people and the environment.
At the press conference, held at the Protestant Church Community Center in Davos, Czech Economist and lateral thinker Tomáš Sedláček raised some interesting questions, such as whether growth really is the only solution and whether it still pays off to be ‘good’. Brid Brennan from the Transnational Institute of Policy Studies then presented the institute’s new report “State of Corporate Power” which demonstrates just how powerful transnational corporations have become, and how much they continue to benefit from the ongoing economic and financial crisis. Kalpona Akter, a former child textile worker from Bangladesh, gave insights from the other end of the spectrum, demonstrating the powerlessness facing many workers in the textile industry and the extent of the suffering from such irresponsible corporate business practices.