Follow the Money
Climate Progress | January 31, 2010
Standing at the pump, watching the numbers tick away, do you ever wonder where the money goes? You're not alone: People on the other end of the pipeline are wondering too.
Some “killer facts” from Oxfam:
• Over 60 percent of the world’s poorest people live in countries rich in natural resources – but they rarely share the wealth.
• 12 of the world’s 25 most mineral-dependent countries and six of the world’s most oil-dependent countries are classified by the World Bank as “highly indebted poor countries.”
• In Africa, about 3/4 of the continent’s trade relates to the natural resource sector. In 2003, US investment in African oil exceeded 10 billion per year, some 2/3 to 3/4 of all its total investment in the continent.
• African oil exporters are likely to receive $400 billion in government revenues over the next decade, an amount that would dwarf feasible increases in official aid.
• By 2015, oil revenues in oil-producing countries could exceed annual aid needs by $35 billion.
• In Angola, more than $4 billion in state oil revenues disappeared from government coffers between 1997 and 2002, an amount roughly equal to the entire sum the government spent on social programs in the same period.
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