London: London Organising Committee for Olympics and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) senior member David Stubbs has said the London Games cannot act as a ‘global policeman’ scrutinising everything done by all the major companies who are its partners and sponsors.
Stubbs, the Olympics Head of Sustainability and the man responsible for delivering an environmentally-friendly London Games, said this when asked about condemnation of some of the choices of Olympics partner and sponsor firms, ranging from Dow Chemical to oil giant BP and the French electricity company EDF.
In 2001, Dow became the 100 percent shareholder of Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), whose Indian subsidiary was guilty for the world’s worst ever industrial disaster in Bhopal, India, in 1984, in which several thousands of people were killed by escaping cyanide gas.
BP was extensively criticised for its handling of the catastrophic Gulf of Mexico oil spill two years ago, while EDF, the French state energy firm, was fined EUR 1.5 million by a French court last year, and had two of its employees sent to jail, for spying on the environment group Greenpeace.
“All the partners are on board working with us, to our criteria, on what we’re looking for in terms of materials and services and supporting our sustainability agenda, and that is the perspective, the framework, in which we can work,” The Independent quoted Stubbs, as saying.
“We can’t suddenly become a global policeman and run around the world looking at everything every company does. If you took out EDF you’d have another energy company, or if you took out BP you’d have another oil company – they’re all similar in that respect,’ he added.
“You’ve got to work with them. It’s no good just saying, ‘oh they’re bad, therefore ignore them’, because that is futile. It’s just gesture politics, and doesn’t really help anyone,” he said.
ANI
