The economic viability of coal is ever decreasing. Without public financial support many coal investments are doomed to fail. Yet several institutions are still willing to finance an energy source that wrecks our climate, damages our health and wastes our money.
To help bring about a world beyond coal, we investigate and promote a socially responsible transition while exposing the economic, legal, social and environmental risks of coal power.
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We provide updates in English from the Balkans and other coal regions.
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Just transition
No one should be left behind when we reconstruct our world into one driven by clean energy. Working on just transition brings all actors who believe in fair regional redevelopment to the same table: unions, industry, public administration, governments, civil society and others sharing this goal.
Coal projects
Rovinari unit 7, Romania
The Romanian Government has been negotiating for several years with the Chinese Government to build a new 600 MW unit at the lignite power plant in Rovinari, Gorj County. The new unit would be built on the site of Units 1 and 2, currently decommissioned. A new up and running plant would pollute the whole region for at least 40 more years, a coal plant’s average lifespan.
Gacko II, Bosnia and Herzegovina
State-owned utility Elektroprivreda Republike Srpske, together with China Machinery and Engineering Corporation (CMEC) and Emerging Markets Power Fund, plans to build a new 350 MW lignite power plant in Gacko, near the town’s existing plant, and in December 2017 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed to move the project forward.
Kamengrad lignite power plant, Bosnia-Herzegovina
An idea to build a power plant at the open-cast Kamengrad coal mine near Sanski Most in the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina has been around for years, but in 2017 it took a step forward with the November signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Energy China International and the Bosnia-Herzegovina construction supplier Lager d.o.o. for a 2 X 215 MW plant.
Latest news
Edhe një bankë ndërkombëtare i thotë ‘Jo’ Termocentralit ‘Kosova e Re’
Bankwatch in the media | 13 November, 2018Pas deklaratës së Bankës Botërore se nuk do të ofrojë mbështetje për termocentralin ‘Kosova e Re’ edhe Banka Evropiane për Ndërtim dhe Zhvillim (BERZh) tani e ka konfirmuar se nuk është duke shqyrtuar mbështetjen për këtë projekt, raporton Bankwatch Ne
Read moreBERZH-i përsërit se nuk e financon “Kosovën e Re”
Bankwatch in the media | 13 November, 2018Pak kohë pasi Banka Botërore njoftoi se nuk do ta mbështesë termocentralin “Kosova e Re”, Banka Evropiane për Rindërtim dhe Zhvillim ka përsëritur se nuk e konsideron projektin. Source: BERZH-i përsërit se nuk e financon “Kosovën e Re”
Read moreEBRD confirms it will not finance New Kosovo coal plant
Blog entry | 13 November, 2018Following the World Bank’s recent statement [1] that it will not provide support for the 500 MW New Kosovo coal power plant, the EBRD has now followed suit by confirming that it is not considering support for the project.
Read moreRelated publications
Towards a just transition for the Upper Nitra region
Briefing | 24 January, 2019 | Download PDFPriatelia ZEME – CEPA and CEE Bankwatch are today launching a set of recommendations to feed into the Just Transition debate taking place in Upper Nitra and at the national level in Slovakia. The recommendations come in a context when Just Transition i
New jobs in the process of transformation of the Upper Nitra region (in Slovak)
Study | 24 January, 2019 | Download PDFThis paper focuses on a brief outline of concrete steps to turn Upper Nitra towards a low carbon future. In particular, it is to stop further public subsidies to fossil energy – especially lignite mining and burning – and urgently redirect public funds
Failing Better or Climate Success?
Briefing | 10 December, 2018 | Download PDFAll the shareholders of the EIB have ratified the Paris Agreement, and the bank itself has claimed during the One Planet Summit in New York that it will align all its activities with the Paris Agreement by 2020. As President Hoyer put it, ‘I am confide
