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WWF-UK Witness Statement
for the Judicial Review Application against the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (Sakhalin II)

by James Leaton, WWF-UK

first published 15 August 2007

WWF-UK submitted a 'witness statement' as part of its joint claim with The Corner House for a judicial review of the UK's Export Credits Guarantee Department's decision in March 2004 to support the Sakhalin II oil-and-gas project off the far eastern coast of Russia.

The statement:

  • provides the history and details of the Sakhalin II oil-and-gas project;
  • outlines WWF-UK's concerns about the impacts of the project on the critically endangered Western Gray Whale, fisheries, local communities, and climate change;
  • summarises the flawed process of the project's Environmental Impact Assessment being carried out after construction had begun; and
  • describes how WWF-UK learnt, by means of a Freedom of Information request, about the ECGD's decision to support the Sakhalin II oil-and-gas project.

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