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
Independent data highlights air pollution crisis in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Press release | 25 June, 2019Dust pollution in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, has been twice the legal limit on two thirds of monitored days in 2018 and caused over one hundred premature deaths in adults during the year, according to independent new data published today in the report Lifting the Smog [1] by CEE Bankwatch Network, the Health and Environment Alliance – HEAL and the Center for Ecology and Energy in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Read moreV4’s Just Transition without Transition
Bankwatch in the media | 17 June, 2019Coal phase-out is inevitable if the world wants to limit global warming to 1.5°C. The question therefore arises not whether to shift to the low-emission economy but when. And how to do that without leaving the people from coal-abundant regions behind.
Read moreJust Transition plan for Slovak coal region Upper Nitra to be aproved today
Press release | 12 June, 2019The Upper Nitra regional parliament is today approving a plan for the region’s transition away from coal, which was created by the Slovak government based on inputs from the local community.
Read moreRelated publications
Coal in the Romanian National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP)
Briefing | 13 March, 2019 | Download PDFRomania was among the countries which managed to submit its draft NECP before the deadline at the end of 2018. This came at a cost – a very limited period for consultations (only ten days), a fact which was signalled by most interested stakeholders. Th
Barriers and project criteria for the Upper Nitra region transition process
Briefing | 5 March, 2019 | Download PDFThis study serves as an invitation and starting point for further discussions and collaboration on just transition in the Upper Nitra region of Slovakia. A just transformation means that while transitioning from coal, the projects of big corporations w
Chronic coal pollution
Study | 28 February, 2019 | Download PDFIn the Western Balkans there are 16 outdated coal power plants that threaten public health by producing enormous amounts of air pollution, impacting people in the region, the EU and beyond. Every year they cause 3,000 premature deaths, 8,000 cases of b
