Greenwashing nuclear expansion in Ukraine, with EU support
Blog entry | 13 September, 2011Upgrades of hydro power plants in Ukraine are a prime example for greenwashing nuclear expansion with renewable energy. Alena Miskun from Bankwatch member group National Environmental Centre of Ukraine gives details on the thickening plot that European public banks are involved in.
Read more
In times of crisis – Poland’s take on the Emperor’s New Clothes
Blog entry | 9 September, 2011Poland has made a worrying proposal on public private partnerships that could risk the future stability of European economies by turning a blind eye to future public debt. But the EU would do well to take the British example as an eye opener.
Read more
Contemplating secure and insecure energy supply
Blog entry | 7 September, 2011The EU external energy policy Communication published today by the European Commission continues the decade-long approach of the EU to ensure the unhindered flow of fossil fuel energy supplies to Europe without a real recognition of the problems this drive creates both inside and outside of the EU.
Read moreReport from a fact finding mission to ArcelorMittal Temirtau
Publication | 15 August, 2011ArcelorMittal received a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for health and safety improvements in its Kazakh coal mines. While fatal accidents at the mines continue, the company has so far not provided sufficient information to allow the project’s assessment. We visited Temirtau to talk with miners directly about the company’s health and safety performance. Video testimonies can also be seen on our website.
Read moreThe Polnoc power plant in Poland. A plan for the biggest greenfield coal project in Europe.
Publication | 10 August, 2011At a whopping 2000 MW, the planned Polnoc power plant (Elektrownia Polnoc) in northern Poland would be the largest greenfield coal-fired power plant in Europe. Located in the Pomerania region, which until now has had no coal industry and in recent years has witnessed an unprecedented surge in the wind energy projects, the plant would sit perilously close to three Natura 2000 sites and cool itself with waters from the nearby Vistula river.
Read more
Chercher la femme: gender equality sidelined in international finance
Blog entry | 10 August, 2011Manana Kochladze, Bankwatch’s regional coordinator for the Caucasus and co-author of our new civil society guide Gender and international financial institutions talks about the impacts on women’s lives when big money comes to help “develop” their countries.
Read moreGender and international financial institutions. A guide for civil society.
Publication | 10 August, 2011The toolkit is based on experiences of different Bankwatch campaigners who have witnessed all kinds of problems caused by internationally sponsored projects. The toolkit is meant to support NGOs from the early steps of their engagement with IFI-sponsored projects. It gives hints about how to identify potential gender related problems and shows ways to prepare for the prevention or mitigation of such problems.
Read more
Bypassing responsibility
Blog entry | 8 August, 2011The complaints office at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has agreed to investigate a complaint from Bankwatch that a railway project in Georgia has not been properly assessed. Georgian Bankwatcher Dato Chipashvili thinks the case should be a lesson for the EBRD to make sure that from the start local people have their say in how projects are done.
Read moreBankwatch Mail 8
Publication | 7 August, 2011In this issue: Kyoto in Bonn * Combating poverty in Georgia * Oil revenues for Weapons * Nukes in Ukraine * EIB Info Policy * EBRD – Language Apartheid * PVC ban in Slovakia * Two new World Bank strategies * Yugoslavia Gets USD 1,3 billion
Read moreComments on the draft EBRD country strategy for the Kyrgyz Republic
Publication | 5 August, 2011As the Kyrgyz Republic is an Early Transition Country with limited capacity for additional external borrowing and in light of recent political events in the country, Bankwatch emphasizes that the EBRD must carefully weigh and analyse any project it considers for financing in this particularly vulnerable country.
Read more
