UN
Sustainable
Energy Headed
by B of A,
Suntech Feted
as by CGI
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 24
-- The UN's
lax approach
to financial
conflicts
of interest
and corporate
domination
were both on
display Monday
behind high
security in
the UN's North
Lawn building.
There
was also
double-dipping,
in which the
Suntech solar
panel firm was
praised both
at Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
Sustainable
Energy
for All event
Monday, after
receiving
praise for the
same project
Sunday across
time at the
Clinton Global
Initiative, in
front of Ban
Ki-moon.
The
UN's September
24 press
release
announced the
continuation
as
chairman of
Chad Holliday
of Bank
of America,
which is among
the
largest
funders of
moutaintop
removal coal
mining:
hardly
sustainable.
The
UN press
release
continued that
"At today’s
event,
significant
new
commitments to
action in
support of
achieving
Sustainable
Energy
for All were
also
announced.
These include:
Suntech
Power
Holdings Co.,
Ltd., the
world's
largest
producer of
solar
panels, will
donate up to
300 kilowatts
of solar
panels to the
Panzi
Hospital in
Bukavu,
Democratic
Republic of
Congo, to help
the
hospital
reduce its
dependence on
expensive
diesel
generators and
improve access
to
electricity."
Back
in February
2011, Suntech
announced it
had an $80
million
contract
for solar
panels for UN
Peacekeeping
missions.
But
then-Peacekeeping
chief Alain Le
Roy told Inner
City Press he'd never
heard of it,
and Suntech
was not
then listed in
the UN's
Vendor
database.
No
wonder: it is
a conflict
of interest to
be on the UN's
advisory board
on a topic, as
the CEO of
Suntech is,
and to be
selling it a
product,
while not even
being listed.
In
terms of
following up
on the UN
Peacekeeping
contract, Le
Roy's
successor Herve
Ladsous,
also French, refuses
to answer any
Inner Cithy
Press questions,
including on
helping
recruit
militia in the
Congo,
after being
exposed
proposing that
the UN use
drones.
Sources in the
UN's C-34
Committee say
the French
firm Thales is
already ready.
And so it goes
at the UN.
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