Kenya energy project exposes the dark side of EU development funds
October 13, 2021
A third of the European Investment Bank (EIB) portfolio in 2020 went through financial intermediaries, a channel that has already enabled multiple projects with devastating consequences for nature and communities with virtually zero accountability. The ongoing review of the EIB’s environmental and social standards is a crucial opportunity to ensure transparency and proper scrutiny of all projects supported with European public money.
The EU Bank about to fail becoming a responsible lender
August 6, 2021
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is closing today the public consultation as part of the review of its Environmental and Social Sustainability Framework. A large group of civil society organisations (CSOs) sent today written contributions highlighting their disappointment with the EIB proposals, and calling for concrete actions to ensure that the EIB will operate as a responsible lender in the future.
Half green and half-blind on democracy. As the EBRD turns 30 the vision of its founders is still far out of sight
April 14, 2021
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) was created in 1991 at a unique moment in history: after the fall of the Berlin wall, the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the run-up for the Rio Earth Summit on Sustainable Development and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
In Kenya, EU bank preventing forced evictions would be a Christmas miracle
December 20, 2019
The European Investment Bank and German development bank KfW are among the lenders supporting a 41 kilometre extension of the road from Mombasa towards Nairobi, one of the most important in Kenya. Over the last four years, the resettlement of those along the transport corridor has created severe problems for residents of Mombasa’s suburbs.
Kenyan village burned down weeks after EIB withdraws from energy project planned at the same place
November 6, 2019
The geothermal power plant Akiira 1 in Kenya’s Nakuru county is planned to be built nearby the place the village of Lorropil used to stand until last Sunday.
Uncertain future for Slovakia’s development funds
August 22, 2019
The Slovak government does not seem to understand the difference between export promotion and development aid, as it proposes to lump the two under one institution, Eximbanka SR.
Slovakia’s climate duplicity
August 15, 2019
At home, Slovakia pays lip service to the climate issues, but abroad – it does not even bother pretending. As it continues to finance crude oil facilities in Cuba, its real climate ambitions are laid bare.
Comments on the final environmental and social impact assessment report for the proposed Tsumeb expansion project
July 16, 2019
Racing against the clock: Kenyan villagers under imminent threat of eviction by project under EU’s bank’s appraisal
June 19, 2019
Today’s European Development Days forum in Brussels with its aspirational motto ‘building a world which leaves no one behind’ is an ironic backdrop to what is happening in the remote parts of Kenya, where a whole community is facing a threat of forced eviction by a project under appraisal of the EU’s own house bank. About a hundred people were demanded to abandon their homes by tomorrow – 20 June.
The weight of gold
January 16, 2019
The new gold mine in Krumovgrad boasts environmental performance and social responsibility, yet there are black spots along the path of the Bulgarian gold around the globe.
