BP’s controversial sponsorship of the National Portrait Awards is today under the spotlight here in Bristol. People from Bristol Rising Tide and Espacio Bristol-Colombia are today holding a vigil faces at the Royal West of England Academy in memory of the people who have been killed as a consequence of BP’s activities in Colombia and worldwide.

Pep Montesinos of Espacio Bristol-Colombia said “ BP’s arrival in the Casanare region of Colombia has brought murder, harassment, fear and profound ecological damage to this farming area. Today we are here to expose the violence behind BP’s operations and to show solidarity with the communities who suffer under the hands of BP.”

Claire Hall from Bristol Rising Tide said “BP are trying to convince us that they are caring and compassionate by sponsoring the portrait awards. Yet behind this slick brand, is a company responsible for 5% of all fossil fuel greenhouse gas emissions. Climate chaos is a war on the poor and the portraits of those who die from it should be shown.”


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Notes for editor

1. Bristol Rising Tide is a group dedicated to taking action against the root causes of climate change. They are part of the international Rising Tide network which has a unique approach to climate change action based around the issues of social justice and a critique of business-led solutions.

2. Espacio Bristol-Colombia is a Bristol-based group run that works in solidarity with Colombian grassroots social organisations campaigning for a socially just peace in Colombia. They are part of the European Network of Friendship and Solidarity with Colombia.

3. BP is soon to be the subject of one of a series of hearings of the People’s Permanent Tribunal into transnational corporations’ responsibility for crimes against humanity in Colombia. The company was exposed by The Guardian in the late 1990’s for having contracted the 26th Brigade of the Colombian army as private security and used the British company Defense Systems Limited to train the Colombian police in lethal “counter-insurgency” techniques, despite the fact that the Colombian security services’ institutionalised links with right-wing paramilitary death squads are well documented by national and international human rights groups. Human Rights organisations continue to report murders and death threats against groups and individuals who present an obstacle to BP’s interests in the region of Casanare, with the most recent murder having taken place on 12 February of this year.

4. Lord Brown, departing Chief Executive of BP observed in 2005 that “climate change is a risk we cannot ignore - We have to act now”. Yet BP’s has a “reserve replacement rate” of 100%, that is they replace all the oil the produce with new discoveries. They are not reducing the oil they produce. In other words, BP will continue emit the same amount of carbon dioxide, as it does today, irrespective of its spending on alternative technologies.
BP itself admits that the oil and gas it extracts emit around 570 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year,, roughly the same as the whole United Kingdom. If all their operations are included they are responsible for over twice that amount, nearly 5% of global fossil fuel greenhouse gases.