Updates on the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Revealed: EBRD climate crimes rising

EBRD efforts to clean up its energy lending in central and eastern Europe are being undermined by extensive fossil fuel investments, with astonishing increases in the EBRD’s backing for coal and oil projects in 2011.

EBRD energy lending report: conflicting investments end up contradicting climate science

London – Almost half of the 6.7 billion euros lent by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) between 2006-2011 goes to support for fossil fuels, according to a report issued today by CEE Bankwatch Network. Support for coal, oil and gas must be discontinued altogether, argues Bankwatch, if the bank’s commendable efforts on increasing financing for renewables and energy efficiency are to have a positive impact in the global fight against climate change.

Tug of War: Fossil fuels versus green energy at the EBRD

Our study shows that almost half of the 6.7 billion euros lent by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) between 2006-2011 goes to support for fossil fuels. This will prevent the bank’s commendable efforts to increase lending to new renewables and energy efficiency from actually making a difference in the global fight against climate change.

Tug of War: Fossil fuels vs. green energy at the EBRD

The briefing summarises the findings of the Bankwatch study ‘Tug of War: Fossil fuels vs. green energy at the EBRD’. The study shows that almost half of the 6.7 billion euros lent to energy related projects by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) between 2006-2011 goes to support for fossil fuels. This will prevent the bank’s commendable efforts to increase lending to new renewables and energy efficiency from actually making a difference in the global fight against climate change.

Comments on EBRD Draft Country Strategy for Armenia

Ombla hydropower project under fire in the European Parliament

The 68 MW Ombla underground hydropower project, for which the EBRD approved a EUR 123.2 loan in 22 November 2011, is once again under fire, this time in the European Parliament. Both the project itself and its approval process have attracted widespread criticism from civil society and biodiversity experts as the project location forms part of a future Natura 2000 site. In 2008 the Croatian State Institute for Nature Protection declared the project “unacceptable for nature”.

Vienna Initiative: regulatory capture and policy confusion continues

In February 2009 the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, together with the European Investment Bank and the World Bank Group launched a series of meetings with commercial banks, coordinated with the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund, to shore up a weak link in the financial systems of the European Union. The weak link is in so-called ‘emerging Europe’, the countries of central and eastern Europe that are in the EU, but are outside the European Monetary Union, the Euro-zone. These are mostly ex-Communist countries whose financial systems had remained undeveloped under communism.

EU nuclear grab looms large in Ukraine

Earlier this year at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Ukraine’s president Victor Yanukovych met Thomas Mirow, the EBRD president, with Yanukovych deeming the ongoing cooperation between Ukraine and the bank to be “excellent”. Other than this being a diplomatic pleasantry, when it comes to energy infrastructure projects Ukraine certainly appears to have done very well out of the EBRD: since 2005 the EBRD has committed more than half a billion euros for these projects in Ukraine, in particular for the upgrade and construction of high-voltage transmission lines. Yet the experience for all concerned – including local communities – has been far from excellent, and concerns are mounting that further grid expansion plans could be storing up yet more problems.

Revolution at the EBRD required for any new role in Egypt

The figures should be well known. Somehow, though, in the western world, and especially in official quarters, they tend to get overlooked in the rush to impose the ‘next latest thing’ on post-revolution Egypt. The country’s seven percent GDP growth figure in 2007, hailed by the World Bank and others, concealed a multitude of injustices. For one thing, average per capita GDP growth plummeted from 4.1 per cent prior to 1990 to 2.7 per cent during the neoliberal era set in motion by the IMF structural adjustment regime in 1991.

EBRD approach to PPPs continues to perplex

After a long gestation period the EBRD’s new draft Municipal and Environmental Infrastructure (MEI) policy finally appeared in April, bringing some good news such as the bank’s commitment to start monitoring some on the ground project impacts and sustainability rather than just market-related transition impacts.