Problematic expansion of agribusiness giant MHP in Ukraine with EBRD support
Publication | 1 February, 2016Myronivsky Hliboproduct PJSC, also known as MHP, is a long-term client of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Following loands in 2013 and 2010, the EBRD approved a USD 85 million loan on 28 October 2015 to support MHP’s agricultural working capital needs. While the agricultural sector is widely viewed as one of the engines of the Ukrainian economy, MHP’s operations are having a range of negative impacts on local communities.
Read moreReport finds development banks fail people harmed by their projects
Press release | 27 January, 2016A new report launched today documents the hurdles communities and workers face in obtaining remedy from development banks whose projects cause them harm. The 11 civil society organizations that authored the report, Glass Half Full? The State of Accountability in Development Finance, call on development banks and the governments that run them to strengthen their systems for providing remedy to those harmed by the activities financed by the banks.
Read moreGlass Half Full? The state of accountability in development finance
Publication | 27 January, 2016Real development respects human rights and is shaped by the people it is designed to benefit. However, development projects financed by development finance institutions in many cases has been associated with the dispossession of land, loss of resources, diminished livelihoods and environmental degradation. Accountability mechanisms in theory aim to ensure that people who have been harmed by these projects receive adequate remedy. As this report shows, however, these accountability mechanisms to a large extent fail to fulfil this function, not least because they operate in a constrained environment constructed by the institutions that administer them.
Read moreUkraine Nuclear Safety Upgrade Programme: loan conditions not met
Publication | 21 January, 2016The Ukrainian government continues to disregard the legal conditions attached to the financial support it receives from the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Euratom for its nuclear safety upgrade program.
Read moreLynxed in: EBRD still can’t say no to destructive Macedonian dam
Publication | 17 December, 2015The latest blow to the highly controversial 68 megawatt Boškov Most hydropower plant, that has attracted EUR 65 million in financing from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), was dealt in early December by the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention, the European wildlife treaty.
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Nuclear plant shenanigans intensify in Ukraine
Publication | 17 December, 2015An ageing nuclear unit in the South Ukraine power plant has become the latest to have its expiry date rewritten by Ukrainian authorities, despite a number of pending safety issues and concerns over compliance with international treaties.
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Reckless dam financing rampant in the Balkans
Publication | 17 December, 2015A new Bankwatch report has found that loans totalling EUR 818 million from international public ‘development’ banks have supported 75 hydropower projects in the Balkans, including 30 which directly affect protected areas such as national parks, Natura 2000 sites and Ramsar sites.
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Greening the EBRD’s portfolio – or greenwashing it
Publication | 17 December, 2015No matter how you look at it, the so-called sustainable energy approach being taken – and loudly trumpeted – by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is simply at odds with both climate science and the recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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Public development banks failing 2 degree test, heavy fossil fuel financing persists
Publication | 17 December, 2015The MDB Climate Change Scorecard, published by Bank Information Center and Sierra Club during COP21, highlights how none of the world’s biggest multi-lateral development banks is on track to help keep the world below 2 degrees warming, and reveals how the seven banks in question – including the World Bank, the EIB and the EBRD – are continuing to support fossil fuel projects in developing countries.
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“Shaping the age of gas” – how the EU is locking in a destructive path
Publication | 17 December, 2015As efforts to realise a mega gas pipeline along the Southern Gas Corridor intensify, Re:Common’s Elena Gerebizza explains how democratic rights are at stake – and are being trampled on.
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