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
Controversial Turkish-Azerbaijani gas pipeline gets major EU loan
Press release | 15 March, 2018Today the board of directors of the European Investment Bank (EIB) green-lighted a EUR 932 million loan to the Trans Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP), the Turkish section of the Southern Gas Corridor, a month after handing out the largest ever fossil fuels loan to the western section of the same project.
Read moreThe Baganuur women affected by coal burning
Blog entry | 6 March, 2018The coal industry continues to negatively impact the local population and environment soothing the public with a false promise for reliable and affordable energy. The damaging influence is especially prominent for the women of Baganuur.
Read moreProtests spread in Western Balkans along with air pollution
Blog entry | 19 February, 2018Community organisations across the region are fed up with worsening air quality and are taking their grievances to the streets
Read moreRelated publications
New Kosovo power plant – an expensive and outdated anomaly in a decarbonising world
Briefing | 19 June, 2018 | Download PDFAfter years of delay, the New Kosovo lignite power plant took a step forward in 2017 with the signing of commercial contracts. However, numerous old issues, including carbon emissions, resettlement, and the dubious single-bidder procurement process, ha …
How can the EBRD maximise its leverage to bring about decarbonisation?
Briefing | 19 June, 2018 | Download PDFThe 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 …
EPS restructuring loan
Briefing | 19 June, 2018 | Download PDFDespite its commitments to increase the share of renewables under the Energy Community and reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the process of EU accession, the Serbian government seems determined to remain locked-in to a carbon intensive energy syst …
