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
Romania’s energy transition: to be or not to be
Blog entry | 1 November, 2018Facing numerous economic and environmental challenges, Romania’s energy industry needs a coherent, sustainable and stable action plan that prioritises transparency in decision-making and consultation of all involved. On 17 October, to identify the necessary measures, Bankwatch Romania organised a workshop titled Opportunities for transition to clean energy in Romania.
Read moreBursting bubbles: greens and geeks of the world, unite!
Blog entry | 26 October, 2018In the age of fake news, providing fact-based arguments in environmental campaigns is crucial. Bankwatch has reached out to the technology-savvy community, to bring more robustness to the narrative.
Read moreBosnia-Herzegovina coal plant loan guarantee complaint under investigation by the Energy Community Secretariat
Campaign update | 22 October, 2018A guarantee for a EUR 614 million loan from the China Eximbank for the Tuzla 7 coal plant fails to meet EU requirements on energy subsidies.
Read moreRelated publications
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
Heroes of Just Transition
Study | 7 December, 2018 | Download PDFOn Dec. 5, during the side event ‘Local communities build a post-coal future’ at the COP24 in Katowice, Bankwatch launched its publication ‘Heroes of Just Transition’, featuring seven stories from coal communities around central and eastern Europe, the
Just Transition in four questions
Briefing | 3 December, 2018 | Download PDFAt the COP24 in Katowice, Poland is inviting world leaders to endorse the Silesia Declaration on Solidarity and Just Transition. The document emphasizes the importance of decarbonizing economies to protect the climate in a socially responsible way, str
