A clash is raging between nature and finance. On the one hand, the EU is striving to improve the deteriorating state of nature across Europe, with initiatives like the Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and the European Green Deal. On the other, massive amounts of public money continue to flow to infrastructure projects with devastating impacts on the natural world. Our work where finance meets the natural world advocates for adequate protection and restoration projects to ensure a green future for all.
IN FOCUS
Rivers and communities
The countries of the Energy Community Treaty have diverse energy mixes, but hydropower has traditionally played a strong role in many of them. Albania is almost completely reliant on dams for its domestic electricity generation, followed by Georgia with an average of 80 per cent of electricity generated by hydropower and Montenegro with an average of 55 per cent.
EU funds and biodiversity
In May 2020, EU leaders committed to an ambitious Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, outlining the clear need to act on biodiversity loss and address the failing health of nature.
The historic amount of EU funds now available represents a golden opportunity to increase biodiversity spending and fully realise the objectives of the biodiversity strategy.
As well as addressing the biodiversity crisis, strategically supporting nature through EU funds is also one of the most effective ways to tackle climate change, while providing jobs and improved health at the same time.
Yet, with many of the previous strategy’s objectives left unachieved, the pressure now mounts for this decade. Never before has there been so much potential – and urgency – to use EU funds and investments to address the biodiversity crisis.
Related projects
Emerald Network in the Western Balkans
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia are required to establish a sufficient number of Emerald Network sites as signatories to the Bern Convention. However, since 2011, not a single new site has been proposed and many stunning rivers remain unprotected. The #EmeraldForRivers campaign aims to support governments in expanding the Emerald Network.
Turnu Măgurele – Nikopol Hydraulic Structures Assembly on the Danube river, Romania and Bulgaria
The project, if built, would not only devastate critical habitats, leading to the potential extinction of species such as the Danube sturgeons, but also displace local communities, disrupt existing investments, and violate several EU environmental directives.
Upper Horizons hydropower scheme, Bosnia and Herzegovina
A series of dams, diversion tunnels, hydropower plants and channels will completely change the natural hydrology of eastern Herzegovina and have unpredictable impacts on wetlands, rivers and underground karst.
Latest news
The European Commission, an EBRD shareholder that should start acting like one
Blog entry | 1 March, 2012Recent Balkan hydro projects suggest the European Commission could make much better use of its shareholder role in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Read moreCroatian civil society groups ask new government to withdraw from Ombla hydro project
Press release | 16 December, 2011Croatian environmental groups today held a protest action outside of the Croatian parliament calling on the country’s new government not to go ahead with the controversial EBRD-financed EUR 150 million Ombla HPP project.
Read moreEBRD to suspend Ombla loan disbursement until further eco studies are completed
Bankwatch in the media | 28 November, 2011The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has said it would not disburse the recently-approved 123.2 million Euro loan for construction of the Ombla hydropower plant near Dubrovnik before the environmental impacts of the project are assessed.
Read moreRelated publications
Needs and priorities for biodiversity funding: A comparative analysis of Hungary and Poland
Briefing | 20 December, 2024 | Download PDFThis publication provides an overview of the priorities for national biodiversity needs in two countries – Hungary and Poland.
Harmful project documenting tool
Tool | 20 December, 2024 | Download PDFThis project documenting tool offers a practical, step-by-step approach to gathering information on problematic projects.
EU funds: Protecting or damaging nature? How to avoid harmful projects
Briefing | 21 October, 2024 | Download PDFThe following recommendations how to prevent projects that damage nature from being financed in the future are based on the case studies from Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland and Slovenia.