Cerrejón Statement on The Christian AID Report “Undermining Human Rights: Ireland, The ESB And Cerrejón Coal”

February 21, 2020. Cerrejon notes the publication of the report by Christian Aid Ireland and the litany of misinformation that is contained throughout the document. Despite a lengthy engagement process with Christian Aid, the report contains a very unbalanced view of life in La Guajira and the impact of coal mining on it.

Cerrejón and CMC (on our own initiative) provided background information last September: since then, no one from CAI has responded to or properly reflected on the information we sent; no one from CAI has visited the mine; our request to go through the draft report – to provide at least some factchecking – was denied.

We understand that CAI seeks to promote its objectives of encouraging faster decarbonization in the production of electricity in Ireland and greater commitment to the use of national and international instruments to protect and respect human rights. Regrettably, though the report presents a profile of Cerrejón which is far from being balanced or fair.

We do recognize that the mine has an impact on the territory: we are also clear that international standards are different now from those which applied when the mine was planned in the 80s. We have made genuine efforts to improve our performance and to engage constructively with all stakeholders, but this report leads us to believe that - at least at the moment - CAI does not wish to engage in a constructive or informed manner.

We have read carefully the recommendations directed at Cerrejón and will take them into consideration in our ongoing analysis of how to improve our business operations. In the annex below we have picked out a number of examples of misleading or simply inaccurate statements which, we believe, highlight the failure of the authors to ensure at least accuracy, if not balance. All of these could have been easily avoided if the information provided by Cerrejón and CMC and, in many cases, from official sources, had been taken into account.

More information here