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Click this link to autofill an email expressing your concern regarding UWCSEA’s acceptance of funds from the Adani family and Karan Adani’s position on the Dover Foundation Leadership Council.
If the link doesn’t work, the full email is at the bottom of the article. Feel free to personalise the email.
As a major element of addressing the climate crisis, youth around the world today are calling on governments, multinational corporations and institutions to divest from entities which are exacerbating the problem. Young people around the world are also talking about justice and equality for BIPOC. More and more, we are recognizing the links between climate justice and social inequality. The United Nations has stated the climate crisis will exacerbate existing inequalities, with BICOP and women to be affected first, and to the greatest extent (Islam and Winkel, 2017).
As part of this, we must also look to the institutions to which we belong. Who is making investments in our schools? Who sits on our boards? And what involvement do these people have in causing the climate crisis? UWC is not exempt from these questions, and these are ones we must urgently ask ourselves.
UWCSEA has accepted funds from the Adani family, infamous for the Adani Group and (now approved) Carmichael coal mine in Australia.
The Carmichael coal mine will play a catastrophic role in inflaming the climate crisis. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that, with a “…planned peak output of 60 million tonnes [of CO2] a year…[the Carmichael coal mine] would increase Australian thermal coal exports by a quarter”, further exacerbating annual bush fires, continuing the bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef, and threatening the health of all people (Davies, 2019).
Aside from the environmental degradation and contribution to the climate crisis, the Adani Carmichael mine violates the human rights of indigenous Australians. According to Australian law, “To mine any land under a native title claim, a miner needs an Indigenous land use agreement, essentially a contract that allows the state to extinguish native title” (Doherty, 2019). However, in August 2019, the Queensland government extinguished native title, “…without any public announcement of the decision…” (Doherty, 2019). By extinguishing native title, Adani has been given a freehold title, allowing them to remove Wangan and Jagalingou protesters forcibly from their traditional lands, including those which are used for ceremonies (Doherty, 2019). The Wangan and Jagalingou Traditional Owners of the land do not consent to the use of their land. While the Wangan and Jagalingou Traditional Owner’s objections no longer have legal significance, they do have moral significance (O'Sullivan, 2019).
These measures taken by the Australian government in support for the Adani Group violates the UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which enshrines the right for indigenous peoples to have “free, prior and informed consent” to the use of their lands (ALHR, 2019).
In addition to this, “The Adani Group has signed a US$290m commercial deal with a holding company controlled by the Myanmar armed forces…” who are currently being tried for genocide in the International Court of Justice (Stoakes, 2019). This is also in violation of the 2018 UN Report on Myanmar which “recommended that no business should enter into an economic relationship with Myanmar’s security forces or any enterprise they control” (Stoakes, 2019).
How is it that our school is taking money from groups such as Adani, in complete opposition to UWC’s mission to create a “sustainable future”? Why is it that UWCSEA, while championing diversity, and while recently re-affirming our commitment to anti-racism, is still failing to stand with indigenous Australians in recognising sovereignty was never ceded? What is evident is that we lack a matrix to discern where we are accepting donations from.
What is more, Karan Adani (and a number of other individuals with interests in entities that propagate the climate crisis) sit on the UWCSEA Foundation Leadership Council. As described on the UWCSEA website, “The Trustees are a globally representative group who have a deep affiliation and connection with the College…” and therefore should, be aligned with our college’s mission of sustainability (Foundation Leadership Council, n.d). It is not just where and who we accept money from that needs to change, it is the people who represent and influence our community.
Karan Adani joined the UWCSEA Foundation Leadership Council in 2019. He is currently a part of the “…Adani group where he is Chief Executive Officer of Adani Ports and SEZ (APSEZ), the ports and logistics business” (Foundation Leadership Council, n.d.). The UWCSEA Foundation Leadership Council also includes Datuk Lim Sue Beng, who as listed in his biography on the UWCSEA website is involved in “…oil and gas consulting”.
Aside from entities that are directly responsible for causing the climate crisis, we must also ask questions of members who actively support other morally and ethically corrupt industries, such as horse racing. Christine Amour-Levar, “…is the Chief Marketing Officer of iRace Media, one of Asia's leading horse racing publishing and media companies” (Foundation Leadership Council, n.d.).
UWCSEA’s practices must not only be transparent to the public, but in line with our core values and mission statement. We are confident that UWCSEA will take the action which is required to uphold our aspirational mission to create positive change.
Template Email
Dear Ms Elliot,
As a current UWCSEA student, I found the recent article on the ‘Don’t Be Afraid’ student advocacy platform, regarding UWCSEA’s acceptance of funds from the Adani family, deeply unsettling. Furthermore, I am concerned that the College has chosen to include individuals on the Dover Foundation Leadership Council that actively infringe upon the human rights of indigenous Australians, and contribute to environmental destruction.
Any collaboration with the Adani Coal Mine and other such corporations is in blatant breach of the United World College mission. If UWCSEA is truly committed to anti-racism, as attested to in their June 10th statement, we must also stand for the protection of indigenous Australians.
Aside from re-evaluating our current policies and implementing new checks and balances to ensure that we do not accept funds from unethical sources like Adani again, I also encourage UWCSEA to make a full review of the UWCSEA Foundation Leadership Council. Its members should not include those who have interests in companies that exacerbate the climate crisis and further marginalize indigenous peoples.
UWCSEA’s practices must not only be transparent to the public, but in line with our core values and mission statement. I am confident that UWCSEA will take the action required to uphold our aspirational mission to create positive change.
Sincerely,
…
Sources:
Davies, Lisa. "Adani Decision Must Not Be Last Word in Climate Fight." The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 June 2019, www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/adani-decision-must-not-be-last-word-in-climate-fight-20190613-p51xes.html. Accessed 14 Dec. 2019.
Doherty, Ben. "Queensland Extinguishes Native Title over Indigenous Land to Make Way for Adani Coalmine." The Guardian, 31 Aug. 2019,
www.theguardian.com/business/2019/aug/31/queensland-extinguishes-native-title-over-indigenous-land-to-make-way-for-adani-coalmine. Accessed 14 Dec. 2019.
"Foundation Leadership Council." UWCSEA | International School in Singapore, www.uwcsea.edu.sg/about/FLC#page_top.
Islam, Nazrul S., and John Winkel. "Climate Change and Social Inequality." UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) Working Papers, 2017, www.un.org/esa/desa/papers/2017/wp152_2017.pdf
O'Sullivan, Dominic. "Indigenous People No Longer Have the Legal Right to Say No to the Adani Mine – Here's What It Means for Equality." The Conversation, 4 Sept. 2019,
Stoakes, Emanuel. "Adani Deal with Myanmar Military-linked Company Raises Human Rights Alarm." The Guardian, 13 May 2019,
"UN Writes to Australia with Concerns About Human Rights Breaches in Adani Project Negotiations." ALHR, 7 May 2019, alhr.org.au/un-concerns-human-rights-adani-negotiations/.