[Duurzaamlijst] Fwd: Global Study Reveals Who’s Financing Nuclear Arms Makers

[Omslag]

De International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)  
heeft een opzoenbarebde studie gedaan naar de financiers  
van de nucleaire wapenindustrie. VoOr NL worden genoemd:  
AEGON, ING en Unilever Pensieonfonds.

Van The Abolition2000 Network: (Abolition2000 op gmail.com)

Global Study Reveals Who's Financing Nuclear Arms Makers

A groundbreaking report released on 5 March 2012 by the
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
[http://www.icanw.org] (ICAN) identifies more than 300  
banks,
pension funds, insurance companies and asset managers in 30
countries with substantial investments in nuclear arms  
producers
. The 180-page study,  Don't Bank on the Bomb: The Global
Financing of Nuclear Weapons Producers
[http://www.dontbankonthebomb.com/], provides details of
financial transactions with 20 companies that are heavily
involved in the manufacture, maintenance and modernization  
of US
, British, French and Indian nuclear forces.

Nuclear disarmament campaigners are appealing to financial
institutions to stop investing in the nuclear arms industry.
"Any use of nuclear weapons would violate international law  
and
have catastrophic humanitarian consequences. By investing in
nuclear weapons producers, financial institutions are in  
effect
facilitating the build-up of nuclear forces. This undermines
efforts to achieve a nuclear-weapon-free world and  
heightens the
risk that one day these ultimate weapons of mass destruction
will be used again," said ICAN campaigner Tim Wright, a co
-author of the report.

South African activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond  
Tutu,
a supporter of ICAN, contributed the foreword to the  
report, in
which he called on financial institutions to "do the right  
thing
and assist, rather than impede, efforts to eliminate the  
threat
of radioactive incineration", noting that divestment was a  
vital
part of the successful campaign to end apartheid in South  
Africa
. "Today, the same tactic can – and must – be employed to
challenge man's most evil creation: the nuclear bomb. No one
should be profiting from this terrible industry of death,  
which
threatens us all," he wrote.

Nuclear-armed nations spend in excess of US$100 billion  
each year
maintaining and modernizing their nuclear forces, according  
to
the ICAN report. Much of this work is carried out by
corporations such as BAE Systems and Babcock International  
in
the United Kingdom, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman in  
the
United States, Thales and Safran in France, and Larsen &  
Toubro
in India. Financial institutions invest in these companies  
by
providing loans and purchasing shares and bonds.

Of the 322 financial institutions identified in the report,
roughly half are based in the United States and a third in
Europe. Asian, Australian and Middle Eastern institutions  
are
also listed. The institutions most heavily involved in  
financing
nuclear arms makers include Bank of America, BlackRock and  
JP
Morgan Chase in the United States; BNP Paribas in France;
Allianz and Deutsche Bank in Germany; Mistubishi UJF  
Financial
in Japan; BBVA and Banco Santander in Spain; Credit Suisse  
and
UBS in Switzerland; and Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and Royal  
Bank of
Scotland in Britain.

The report emphasizes the humanitarian, legal and  
environmental
arguments for divestment, noting the unique destructive
potential of nuclear weapons. Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor  
of the
US atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, writes in the  
report:
"Anyone with a bank account or pension fund has the power to
choose to invest his or her money ethically – in a way that  
does
not contribute to this earth-endangering enterprise." In
addition to stating the ethical case for divestment, the  
report
also warns of the reputational risks associated with  
financing
nuclear arms, and highlights the positive role that  
financial
institutions could play in the quest for a world free from  
such
weapons.

View the report at  [http://www.dontbankonthebomb.com].

Abolition 2000 provides a regular update of progress and  
actions
for a global treaty to abolish nuclear weapons. For further
information about Abolition 2000 and our activities see www
.abolition2000.org





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