Bankwatch Mail 52
Publication | 14 May, 2012Issue 52 of our quarterly newsletter is a special double edition as this week sees the annual meetings of two of our target institutions, the EIB and the EBRD. Both banks are attracting widspread coverage: the EIB for its potential role in a belated EU-wide drive for growth; the EBRD as it prepares to extend its operations beyond central and eastern Europe into the North Africa region and as it decides on a new president.
Read moreImprove quality of EIB lending before increasing quantity – letter to EIB governors
Publication | 12 May, 2012The letter, sent shortly before the European Investment Bank’s annual meeting, calls on EIB governors to improve the EIB’s lending before increasing its capital base as a response to the European crisis. The letter argues that in order to offer a long term solution, EIB backed projects should be economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. Right now this is not the case.
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The medium-sized EIB bazooka – Europe’s people and environment must benefit this time around
Blog entry | 11 May, 2012As it begins to dawn on Europe’s elite that fiscal austerity is not working after all, the European Investment Bank is once again the talk of the EU as decision-makers scramble to stimulate national economies that are hemhorraging jobs and living standards – and hope – across the continent.
Read moreComments on the EIB’s Draft Greenhouse Gas Accounting Methodology
Publication | 7 May, 2012The European Investment Bank (EIB) has developed draft methodologies in order to assess project greenhouse gas emissions from its projects. Bankwatch’s comments provide recommendations on how to improve the methodology used in order to support the EU’s climate goals. Our comments primarily focus on how baselines are set and the treatment of scope 3 emissions. The document also discusses the way in which we believe the bank needs to use the outcomes from its GHG calculations.
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Europe’s energy games are not child’s play
Blog entry | 23 April, 2012A new campaign video illustrates Europe’s self-absorbed approach to its energy policy outside Europe. (A blog entry Cross-posted from the Counter Balance blog.)
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Poland’s anti-climate gamble continued
Blog entry | 18 April, 2012Poland’s application for free emission allowances is a disgrace to European climate goals. If granted, the country’s fossil fuel centred plans would mean a step back for Europe’s plans to decarbonise its energy sector.
Read moreSlovenia: The EBRD freezes loan disbursements in Alstom’s coal project over corruption allegations. NGOs call on the EIB to follow suit
Press release | 18 April, 2012Paris, 18 April 2012 — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced that it is freezing the disbursement of the promised EUR 100 million loan for the construction of a new lignite block at thermal power plant TES 6 in Šoštanj, Slovenia. The decision by the EBRD comes after a group of Slovenian and international NGOs approached the EBRD asking for the bank to halt the loan until corruption allegations are investigated.(1)
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Suspension or no suspension, the EBRD freezes disbursements for the Šoštanj lignite power plant
Blog entry | 18 April, 2012With the decision to freeze the disbursement of a loan for the Šoštanj lignite power plant in Slovenia, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development seemingly reacts to the many controversial points Bankwatch and other organisations have raised about the project.
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Khimki Forest activist wins Goldman Environmental Prize
Blog entry | 16 April, 2012One of this year’s winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize is Russian Khimki Forest defender Evgenia Chirikova, but the good news is being overshadowed by continued violence against other Khimki activists.
Read morePhoto report from Kiev Chop road rehabilitation – dangers and hardships for local communities
Publication | 13 April, 2012The rehabilitation of the Kiev-Chop road, financed with the help of EBRD and EIB loans, was part of the preparations for the Euro 2012 championships in Poland and Ukraine. Due to a negligent implementation, the project resulted in local people having to face dangerous, even life threatening situations every day.
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