During the last months, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has come out with positive statements about shale gas investments, most recently on Poland – a rather rash endorsement of a controversial technology.
A quick visit to the Kolubara mining basin reveals that the resettlement there looks nothing like the presentation from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
A roundtable discussion on European public banks and energy lending brought together Members of the European Parliament and non-governmental organisations, while the public banks themselves chose to stay away.
Today we’re relieved in Zagreb as one energy project that could have had a destructive impact on Croatia’s future has lost its financing and thus its chances of going ahead are drastically reduced: I’m speaking about the infamous Ombla dam, a project for an underground hydropower plant that would have practically destroyed a protected area close to Dubrovnik.
Just as Bankwatch published a new infographic juxtaposing the European Investment Bank’s beneficial and harmful energy lending, Europe’s political leaders have set a priority for energy investments to phase out fossil fuel subsidies and focus on clean energy instead.
Energy efficiency has now become a priority for EU funding in the Czech Republic for the forthcoming 2014-2020 budgetary period.
