People and Planet protest against RBS' "dirty" investments

Students across Scotland protested against the Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS) funding of the extraction of tar sands in Canada.

The students, part of the People and Planet human rights campaign, are accusing the bank of funding the devastation of lives and homes of the Aboriginal peoples living on grounds where the tar sand is being extracted.

Ian Leggett, director of People and Planet, said: “Taxpayers have already had to pick up the tab for bailing out RBS for its irresponsible lending. Yet if the government allows it to carry on investing in projects and companies in the certain knowledge that such investments will accelerate climate change, we will have to pick up an even bigger tab in the future.

The government should be doing more to stop the bank from damaging the environment said Mr Legget

He aimed his criticisms at the government who are refusing the take responsibility or intervene in the direction of the bank's investments.

“Investing in high carbon projects is not in shareholders’ and taxpayers’ interests and the sooner RBS stops supporting climate damaging projects the better,” he said.

The protests, staged in Edinburgh, Glasgow, St. Andrews, Stirling and Aberdeen, coincided with the visit of indigenous Canadian First Nations communities to the Scottish parliament.

Johnny Agnew from People and Planet in Glasgow said the public should have more of say in what RBS does.

“The local and global environmental destruction of the digging of tar sands is causing is unacceptable, and the funders are right on our doorstep.

“The public now owns 84 per cent of RBS and we don't want to be funding what has been described as the 'dirtiest project on earth'”.

Tar sand extraction is one of the most intensive forms of oil production, contributing significantly to climate change.

According to a recent article in the New Internationalist the climate change has been affecting the local indigenous peoples severely over the past years.

The article stated that rising sea levels have been contaminating water supplies and are threatening the infrastructure of the coastal communities.