Call for the EBRD to condemn retaliation against civil society
Publication | 21 December, 2018The space for civil society is rapidly shrinking across the world. This is especially true in the countries of EBRD operations, where crackdowns on freedom of expression, association, and assembly threaten the very existence of independent civil societ
Read more
Belgrade incinerator plans raise burning questions
Blog entry | 19 December, 2018The planned Belgrade waste incinerator in Serbia, being considered for financing by the EBRD, EIB and IFC, is incompatible with increasing waste prevention and recycling rates and endangers the already precarious livelihoods of the 12,000 people who currently live from waste-picking in the city. The recently published environmental and social impact assessment for the project fails to resolve either of these issues, as well as numerous others.
Read more
If the EBRD does not lead the energy transition, we will have to do it ourselves
Blog entry | 18 December, 2018In the middle of last week, negotiators in this year’s UN climate summit in Katowice, Poland, were scrambling to agree on guidelines for the Paris Agreement that would ensure global warming is capped at no more than 2 degrees. At the same time, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), one of the world’s key development banks, adopted a new energy lending strategy that ends its support for coal but keeps the door wide open for gas. Ioana Ciuta of CEE Bankwatch Network takes a closer look.
Read more
Belgrade Solid Waste PPP ESIA
Publication | 18 December, 2018Comments and questions in English and Serbian submitted during the public consultation on the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment.
Read more
Shuakhevi Compliance Review
Publication | 12 December, 2018In view of the considerable public resources invested in the Shuakhevi HPP project and in view of the negative impacts on local people’s safety and livelihoods, as well on local resources needed for sustainable development of the Adjara region and Geor
Read more
As human rights declaration turns 70, development banks have a ways to go to respect and protect rights defenders
Blog entry | 10 December, 2018Today 10 December marks the seventieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To coincide with this milestone, Bankwatch together with more than 200 organisations globally has called on international financiers [1] to ensure that these institutions support the realisation of human rights, avoid causing or contributing to rights abuses, promote an enabling environment for public participation, and safeguard rights defenders.
Read more
Submission to the EBRD strategy for Turkmenistan
Publication | 7 December, 2018Developments in Turkmenistan do not demonstrate commitments of the authorities to apply the political principles of the Article 1 of the Agreement Establishing the Bank. Intergovernmental organisations and CSO sources describe situation in Turkmenistan
Read more
European Parliament warns Balkan countries to stop destructive hydropower
Blog entry | 6 December, 2018The European Parliament urged the EBRD and EIB to review their support for hydropower plant projects in its last week’s resolutions on the European Commission’s 2018 reports on Albania and Montenegro. The votes come as a clear sign that the European institutions are starting to reconsider their support for hydropower as green energy.
Read more
Comments on the EBRD Draft Energy Sector Strategy
Publication | 16 November, 2018On 8 October the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its Special Report “Global Warming of 1.5oC”. The report warned that at the current level of climate commitments the world is on course for a disastrous 3 degrees Celsius of
Read more
Western Balkans power sector future scenarios and the EBRD
Publication | 16 November, 2018The Western Balkans, as a region that represents both a post-Socialist economy and EU accession region, can benefit greatly from up-to-date insights by the EBRD on how to move its energy transition forward more rapidly. Its decision-makers have not yet
Read more
