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
IFC Funding for Paravani HPP
Bankwatch in the media | 23 June, 2011European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and International Finance Corporation (IFC) will provide USD 115.5 million credit to finance construction of 87 MW Paravani hydro power plant in the south-west of Georgia.
Read moreBringing Georgian realities to the EBRD drawing board
Blog entry | 30 May, 2011David Chipashvili from Bankwatch member group Green Alternative in Georgia talks about the opportunities and threats in bringing concerns from the ground to the attention of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Read moreEconomic liberalisation trumps democratisation in EU Neighborhood Policy, says Bankwatch
Press release | 2 March, 2011The strategic review of the European Neighbourhood Policy initiated by the European Commission last year should ensure that funds disbursed through the ENPI mechanism truly promote the development of democratic institutions, human rights and environmental sustainability in Partnership countries, says CEE Bankwatch Network.
Read moreRelated publications
The Modernisation Fund in central and eastern Europe
Briefing | 13 December, 2022 | Download PDFThis briefing gives insights into the Modernisation Fund, a funding programme to support 10 lower-income EU Member States in their transition to climate neutrality by modernising their energy systems and improving energy efficiency.
The Western Balkan power sector: between crisis and transition
Report | 5 December, 2022 | Download PDFAs energy transition in the Western Balkans slowly proceeds, energy crisis has hit the region on four fronts: electricity prices, technical problems at coal plants, lack of water for hydropower, and skyrocketing biomass prices. This crisis is both a se
Accelerating the deployment of sustainable solar
Statement | 5 December, 2022 | Download PDFThis joint statement by BirdLife International Europe and Central Asia, CEE Bankwatch Network, Climate Action Network Europe, the European Environmental Bureau, EuroNatur and SolarPower Europe lays out priorities for the current EU discussions to ensur
