Flood impacts kept secret by hydropower plant constructor in Georgia
Blog entry | 6 October, 2014Georgian Urban Energy (GUE), the company in charge of constructing the Paravani hydropower plant (HPP), has been keeping secret a study on the potential flooding risks associated with the facility, despite requests and promises from the EBRD that such an analysis would be made public.
Read moreBig EU energy projects cannot be chosen behind closed doors, say NGOs
Press release | 29 September, 2014Brussels — As a new process of identifying big EU energy Projects of Common Interest (PCIs) kicks off in Brussels today, environmental NGOs warn that the EU must only prioritise energy projects which are not destructive of the environment and climate, and that the choice of these projects must be done through a transparent process.
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On Evgeny Vitishko, multilateral development banks and the criminalisation of public criticism
Blog entry | 26 September, 2014The recent rejection to release Evgeny Vitishko’s, an imprisoned environmental activist in Russia, illustrates the backlash against fundamental rights and freedoms in some countries. Multilateral development banks need to take notice of this trend and be more wary of the risk that their lending may strengthen authoritarian regimes.
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Serbian energy sector needs overhaul
Blog entry | 10 September, 2014The news portal Deutsche Welle has visited the Kolubara lignite mine in Serbia and produced a short clip about the difficulties faced by the Serbian energy sector. Our Serbian colleague Nikola Perusic speaks in the video about the terrible landslide that happened in May 2013.
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Second fatal landslide in Georgian Dariali valley
Blog entry | 22 August, 2014While likely not the cause, the EBRD-financed Dariali hydropower plant is being constructed without proper assessment or mitigation of known geological risks. The construction must be halted to avoid further damage.
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Azerbaijan political prisoners list published with report’s authors on it
Press release | 19 August, 2014London — Human rights activists in Azerbaijan published yesterday a list of 98 people who are currently political prisoners in the country run by the authoritarian regime of Ilham Aliyev. Ironically, the list includes the names of two of its authors, prominent rights activists Rasul Jafarov and Leyla Yunus, who were arrested under false charges earlier this month while they were working on the report.
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The Euro-Caspian Mega Pipeline – another ‘Blair rich project’
Publication | 8 August, 2014The hiring of former British prime minister Tony Blair to advise a BP-led consortium pushing forward with plans to pump Caspian gas from Azerbaijan to Europe has bumped the ‘Euro-Caspian Mega Pipeline’ (ECMP) into western media coverage and lead to criticism of yet another unsavoury Blair consultancy.
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Sharing the shale experience
Blog entry | 29 July, 2014Shale gas has become a focal point of interest for central and eastern European governments, with oil corporations (not only) from the West ready to start drilling as soon as possible. But protests have sparked across the region from Zurawlow in Poland to Pungesti in Romania. We spoke with two anti-fracking activists working on the Neuquén province in Argentina where the struggles of local communities against conventional oil and gas exploration are now amplified by even more problems related to unconventional fuels.
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City of Zagreb still playing with fire
Blog entry | 18 July, 2014Seasoned Bankwatch-watchers may recall our successful four-year campaign to stop the EBRD from financing a waste incinerator just outside Zagreb. Between 2005 and 2008, we supported Zelena akcija/Friends of the Earth Croatia and local group UZOR to prevent the City of Zagreb from building a huge 385 000 tonnes per year waste incinerator in Resnik on the outskirts of Croatia’s capital.
Read moreBriefing: Turceni coal power plant rehabilitation
Publication | 12 July, 2014While it may seem to be an environmental project at a quick glance, there are a number of facts that question the justification of the Turceni unit 6 rehabilitation project. The Turceni unit 6 project isn’t just a rehabilitation of the power plant unit, it is part of a county-wide operation with ignored social and environmental impacts. The immediate question is whether this is it really a pollution reduction project.
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