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
Komarnica hydropower plant, Montenegro
Planned by Montenegro’s state-owned electricity utility EPCG, the need for the Komarnica hydropower plant has never been proven.
EU funds and biodiversity
Nature is in crisis. 81 per cent of habitats in the EU are in ‘poor condition’, and without swift action this will only become worse. We need systemic and wide-reaching action and investments to tackle biodiversity loss and help restore nature before it is too late. The EU has pledged 120 billion of the EU budget to be earmarked for biodiversity by 2026, offering enormous potential to restore and protect nature, providing this is properly invested. We are therefore campaigning to ensure these public funds work for – not against – nature.
Buk Bijela dam and the Upper Drina cascade
Planned as a joint project of public utilities owned by the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, Buk Bijela on the upper Drina is being pushed forward in violation of local legislation and international conventions.
Latest news
Activists call on EU to better protect nature from energy infrastructure in the Western Balkans, Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova
Press release | 14 March, 202360 civil society organisations have sent a joint letter to the EU Commissioner for Environment, Virginijus Sinkevičius, calling on the EU to better protect nature during energy infrastructure development under the Energy Community Treaty (1).
Read moreEnvironmental groups challenge backdoor dismantling of EU nature safeguards
Press release | 9 March, 2023CEE Bankwatch Network and ÖKOBÜRO have initiated legal action (1) to uphold EU environmental law and public consultation requirements when building renewable energy facilities. The groups argue that an emergency regulation adopted by the Council of the European Union in December 2022 breaches EU and international law.
Read moreSuccessful renewables acceleration needs more public participation, not less
Blog entry | 27 February, 2023In December 2022, the Council of the European Union adopted an emergency regulation aimed at speeding up renewable energy deployment. But Member States have to uphold environmental safeguards and consult the public if they don’t want to end up doing the opposite, warns our new position paper.
Read moreRelated publications
Romanian decision-makers try to misuse REPowerEU funds for illegal hydropower plants
Briefing | 30 November, 2022 | Download PDFThis briefing describes how Romania’s Parliament and Government are again pushing to legalise illegal hydropower projects in protected areas using new opportunities for funding under the REPowerEU chapter of the EU recovery fund. It shows how a new dra
Renewables automatically of ‘overriding public interest’ – a counterproductive attack on EU nature legislation
Briefing | 14 November, 2022 | Download PDFThis briefing analyses the Commission’s proposal to declare renewables as automatically being of ‘overriding public interest’ in the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive under the REPowerEU legislative proposal. New rules would seriously undermin
Why hydropower in southeast Europe is a risky investment
Report | 27 July, 2022 | Download PDFHydropower, together with coal, has traditionally played a major role in the power systems of southeast Europe, with particularly high shares in Albania, Montenegro and Croatia. And today, southeast European governments, utilities and energy experts are keen to build even more hydropower.
