Hydropower vs. nature in southeast Europe: EBRD complicity in environmental crime?
Blog entry | 31 October, 2011Why is it that when we advocate for something to the international financial institutions (IFIs) they often manage to give it a peculiar twist of their own?
Read moreLetter to EBRD: Concerns regarding the Boskov Most Hydro Power Plant, Macedonia
Publication | 28 October, 2011A coalition of more than 30 Macedonian and international NGOs are calling on the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) not to finance the Boskov Most hydro power plant in north-western Macedonia. The project would seriously damage Mavrovo national park, the largest in the country and a potential Natura 2000 site.
Read moreOpen letter requesting EBRD to withdraw from the Ombla hydroelectric plant project
Publication | 26 October, 2011The Ombla hydropower plant is planned to be built in a cave in Croatia that is part of a proposed Natura 2000 site, but the environmental, economic and social impacts have only insufficiently been assessed by the project promoters. More than 30 Croatian and international civil society organisations therefore urged the EBRD to not approve a loan for the project.
Read moreNGOs call on the EBRD not to finance “high risk” underground HPP in Croatia
Press release | 26 October, 2011Zagreb — Croatian and international environmental organisations have today called on the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) not to go ahead with a planned EUR 123 million loan for the Ombla hydropower plant near Dubrovnik in Croatia, due to be approved by the bank’s Board of Directors on November 8. In an open letter to the bank, the organisations point to ecological, economic, and procedural problems with the plans, which even the consultants hired by the EBRD to assess the project have described as “high risk”.
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The art of sustainability is not to finance coal
Blog entry | 20 October, 2011Upset by Slovenia’s plans to build a huge lignite power plant unit in Sostanj, Slovenian artist Marko Kumer-Murc and Slovene environmentalists from Focus brought their protest to Brussels. Our media officer was on sight and brought back a few images.
Read moreStory of an artists. Leaflet against EU support for the Sostanj lignite power plant in Slovenia
Publication | 19 October, 2011Upset by Slovenia’s plans to build a huge lignite power plant unit in Sostanj, Slovenian artist Marko Kumer-Murc and Slovene environmentalists from Focus brought their protest to Brussels. The leaflet tells Marko’s story and offers a quick round-up of Sostanj and other coal power plants that are supported by international financial institutions.
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Art installation at Berlaymont denounces banking on coal
Press release | 19 October, 2011Brussels – With an art installation that symbolizes EU citizens locked in a polluted environment, the Slovenian artist Marko Kumer Murč and Slovene environmentalists from Focus protest against European public and private banks pouring hundreds of millions of euros into a new lignite plant in their country, at Sostanj. Many Slovenians oppose this project and the Slovenian parliament has just refused to support a state guarantee for the banks’ loans. The action is supported by the international NGOs Banktrack and CEE Bankwatch Network, which are campaigning against the project.
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European Parliament makes a step towards putting the ‘E’ into EBRD
Blog entry | 19 October, 2011By requesting a number of changes at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Parliament has confirmed at least some of Bankwatch’s criticism of the bank’s mode of operation and (in a subtle way) also its overall approach.
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Did the glimmer of gold blind the EBRD?
Blog entry | 11 October, 2011The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has become a stakeholder in a company that is involved in gold mining in a UNESCO World Heritage site in Russia. Not only does this violate its own Environmental and Social Policy, but it also tells me a lot about the bank’s assessment of partner companies.
Read moreLetter to EBRD: Don’t support gold exploration in UNESCO site in Russia
Publication | 5 October, 2011In August 2011, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced that it was acquiring a stake in GV Gold, one of Russia’s top gold producers, stressing the company’s willingness to meet the Bank’s environmental and social requirements. A GV Gold subsidiary, however, carries out prospecting and plans to mine gold on a territory that is located in its entirety in a UNESCO World Natural Heritage property.
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