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
Just transition
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. They should be working together to find what is best for their regions and communities, from creating good quality jobs to identifying sustainable alternatives.
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.
Latest news
Bosnia-Herzegovina: Illegal lignite mine expansion at Gacko must be halted
Blog entry | 26 June, 2020An environmental impact assessment process is currently ongoing to expand the open-cast lignite mine at Gacko in Bosnia-Herzegovina. But the mine expansion started long ago.
Read moreWestern Balkan coal power plants breach pollution limits by 6 times, for the second year in a row
Press release | 23 June, 2020Two and a half years since pollution control legislation under the Energy Community Treaty obliged Western Balkan governments to apply EU norms, a new Bankwatch analysis finds air pollution – primarily sulphur dioxide (SO2) and dust emissions – from coal-fired power plants remains stubbornly high, choking communities across the region and beyond.
Read moreEBRD’s Green Economy Transition must not be a fig leaf for fossil fuels investments
Blog entry | 16 June, 2020Like many other financial institutions, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has responded to the call to join the global effort to tackle the climate crisis. And yet, over the past decade, while growing its support for renewable energy, the bank has continued to hand out public money to the fossil fuels industry.
Read moreRelated publications
Complaint to European Commission: Public procurement procedure for the Sostanj lignite power plant
Official document | 2 November, 2011 | Download PDFStory of an artists. Leaflet against EU support for the Sostanj lignite power plant in Slovenia
Leaflet | 19 October, 2011 | Download PDFUpset by Slovenia’s plans to build a huge lignite power plant unit in Sostanj, Slovenian artist Marko Kumer-Murc and Slovene environmentalists from Focus brought their protest to Brussels. The leaflet tells Marko’s story and offers a quick round-up of Sostanj and other coal power plants that are supported by international financial institutions.
The EBRD and coal. Dirty business unnoticed.
Briefing | 3 October, 2011 | Download PDFDespite numerous international calls for the discontinuation of public support for fossil fuels in the face of climate change, the EBRD continues to finance the dirtiest among them, coal. What is more, the bank plans to expand its activities in this field. CEE Bankwatch Network urges the EBRD to phase out any support for coal industry making it more competitive and disadvantaging sustainable energy.
