Legal challenges mount for Armenia gold mine as complaint filed to EU development lender
Press release | 15 June, 2020Yerevan – The beleaguered Amulsar gold mine in Armenia broke rules attached to two loans totalling EUR 11 million it received in 2017 and 2009 from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, alleges a new complaint from 23 people living near the project and Armenian and international civil society groups including CEE Bankwatch Network.
Read moreCities for citizens
Blog entry | 15 June, 2020To modernise and green our cities, we need good governance first.
Read moreSlovene prosecutors file charges over coal plant corruption
Blog entry | 25 May, 2020The long-running saga of Slovenia’s overpriced Šoštanj 6 coal power plant took a dramatic turn last week when Slovene prosecutors filed charges including money laundering against 12 people and two companies. Meanwhile, in 2018, the Šoštanj power plant as a whole generated a net loss of EUR 58.5 million. Why are nearby Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina – both countries that are planning new coal plants – not learning any lessons?
Read moreA herd of white elephants is approaching the EU’s neighbours
Blog entry | 30 April, 2020Over three quarters of the energy projects proposed by the EU’s neighbours for priority status, including privileged access to public funds, are fossil fuels projects.
Read moreFrom the Caucasus to Russia: Why this road?
Blog entry | 27 April, 2020To “better connect the Caucasus to Russia,” a new road project, Kvesheti-Kobi, is planned to be realized in Georgia. This road section will be part of a north-south corridor that passes the Caucasus and serves to connect the region to Russia.
Read moreChange for good: why we need fair, just supply chains
Blog entry | 27 April, 2020Uncertainty and crisis are not uncommon to global supply chains. The present disruption sheds light on the unsustainability of production and logistics and is an opportunity for economic players like the international financial institutions to rethink the way supply chains benefit those at every stage.
Read moreThe Commission must stay strong on EU sustainable investment criteria as they become law
Blog entry | 24 April, 2020As the European Commission moves to legislate on criteria regulating what can be defined as sustainable investments, Bankwatch warns that activities such as waste incineration, gas combustion and nuclear energy must not be allowed to sneak in at the last minute.
Read moreFears revive in the villages of Shuakhevi as one of Georgia’s biggest hydropower plants starts operation
Blog entry | 17 April, 2020Georgia’s Shuakhevi hydropower plant (HPP), which once promised to bring energy independence to the country but collapsed soon after becoming operational in 2017, has come back to life. But its return has not been welcome.
Read moreStatus update on the Nenskra hydropower plant project
Blog entry | 9 April, 2020New comprehensive assessments of project alternatives, climate risks, and environmental and social impacts are necessary if the project will ever restart.
Read moreUkrainian activists taken to court by longstanding EBRD client after sounding the alarm on impacts of planned wood processing factory
Blog entry | 7 April, 2020Activists from the environmental NGO Ecoclub from Rivne, Ukraine are facing defamation charges after they raised warnings about a planned wood processing facility near the city. The group alerted the public to a host of potential negative environmental impacts the facility might have, which has started construction in the village of Horodok, in the Rivne region, in Ukraine’s northwest.
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