Setting precedent, EU bank to drop all fossil fuels funding beyond 2020
Press release | 26 July, 2019Prague, Brussels – The European Investment Bank, the house bank of the EU, is proposing to end financing for all fossil fuels beyond 2020, becoming the first multilateral financial institution to make such a commitment in line with the Paris Agreement.
Read moreSubmission on the European financial architecture for development
Publication | 23 July, 2019In the Submission to the High Level Group of Wise Persons on the European financial architecture for development, civil society organisations CEE Bankwatch Network, Concord, Counter Balance and Eurodad welcome the European Council’s initiative to revie
Read moreBelgrade incinerator: Serbia to be a dumping ground for outdated technology?
Blog entry | 22 July, 2019The Serbian Ministry of Environment recently published the environmental assessment for the planned Vinča waste incinerator for public consultation. But the study shows no sign that the new plant would be in line with new EU pollution control standards approved in June.
Read moreAhead of Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank meeting in Luxembourg, over 89 000 petition bank to drop Nenskra dam project in Georgia
Press release | 12 July, 2019Luxembourg, Prague, Tbilisi – Representatives from the “Stop Nenskra” campaign [1] showed up in Luxembourg at the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) annual meeting on July 12th and delivered a petition to the international development banks calling them on not to finance the Nenskra hydropower plant project [2] in Svaneti, Georgia.
Read moreRacing against the clock: Kenyan villagers under imminent threat of eviction by project under EU’s bank’s appraisal
Blog entry | 19 June, 2019Today’s European Development Days forum in Brussels with its aspirational motto ‘building a world which leaves no one behind’ is an ironic backdrop to what is happening in the remote parts of Kenya, where a whole community is facing a threat of forced eviction by a project under appraisal of the EU’s own house bank. About a hundred people were demanded to abandon their homes by tomorrow – 20 June.
Read moreNew opportunities for eastern Europe if the EU’s bank ramps up climate ambition and quits fossil fuels
Blog entry | 13 June, 2019Ahead of the European Investment Bank’s annual governors’ meeting, several EU’s finance ministers put forward a joint non-paper “Climate for the future of Europe” with an idea to transform the EIB: make green financing its top priority and promote investments in energy and climate transition. The right initiative risks failing if not supported by the majority of the bank’s shareholders, in particular by the eastern states that wrongfully fear that EIB’s increasing ambition in climate finance will unfavorably impact the bank’s presence in their countries.
Read moreIn Georgia, leaked contract shows Nenskra hydropower project to cost country USD 60 million a year
Press release | 10 June, 2019For immediate release. Prague, Tbilisi – A leaked contract between the Georgian government and the company behind the Nenskra hydropower project includes terms that indicate the project will incur massive losses for the state, according to a report broadcast on 8 June by the national television station Rustavi 2 [1].
Read moreTaking the chill off Romania’s residential buildings
Blog entry | 4 June, 2019Energy efficiency is taking centre stage in the Energy Union. Last summer, after long negotiations between the Parliament and the Council, a new energy efficiency target was set at 32.5 per cent by 2030. To meet the target, Romania is channelling public funds into renovating its residential sector which accounts for as much as 86 per cent of the country’s built environment.
Read moreIndigenous communities in Georgia threatened by a major hydropower project financed with European public money
Blog entry | 10 May, 2019There are many reasons why the Nenskra hydropower plant in Georgia should not be built at all. The project is set to have devastating environmental and social impacts, and its economics are particularly shoddy.
Read moreSlovak aspects of the EIB Energy Lending Policy
Publication | 31 March, 2019One of the biggest challenges in Slovakia is to ensure systematic support for the development of decentralised, non-fossil and sustainable energy system. The European Investment Bank (EIB) already invested far too much into fossil gas (77 per cent of a
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