Europe has ambitions to become a global leader in the fight against climate breakdown. Transforming the continent’s energy systems and shifting towards climate-friendly alternatives requires massive investments, especially in central and eastern Europe, where outdated infrastructure and a reliance on fossil fuels persists.
The good news is that the EU has the financial means to fund this transformation. The challenge is ensuring that the investments of today are geared towards addressing the climate crisis and Europe’s declining state of nature.
We know that when people have a voice in investment decisions, the results speak for themselves: more acceptance and ownership of spending and a greater chance that harmful and wasteful projects are avoided.
We work to ensure that EU financial flows address the climate crisis and do no harm to people and nature. We do this by involving the public in the design and spending of EU investments.
IN FOCUS
Just transition
Countries across central and eastern Europe are committing to quit coal and shale oil. Now the task is to ensure that the just transition is driven from the bottom up and leaves no one behind as we move towards a sustainable energy future.
Building back biodiversity
Threats facing biodiversity are increasing alongside the drivers of the climate crisis. But investments in climate protection should not come at the expense of those that can help biodiversity. The two crises of climate and biodiversity are interconnected and both must be tackled together, because only by investing in nature can we tackle climate change.
RegENERate: Mobilising Regions for Energetic Re-development and Transformative NECPs
The overall objective of the project is to support the CEE countries’ contribution to the EU efforts towards a net-zero emissions future. The project will contribute to more ambitious and effective climate and energy policies in CEE, backed by a long-term commitment to phase out fossil fuels, improve energy efficiency and promote renewable energy.
Latest news
Moving Western Balkan district heating systems away from fossil fuels
Press release | 21 November, 2022With winter fast approaching, the need for efficient, clean and affordable district heating in communities throughout the Western Balkans is pressing.
Read moreReaction to European Parliament vote: Ensnaring the EU in a fossil fuel trap
Press release | 10 November, 2022While world leaders are debating how to tackle the climate crisis at COP27 in Egypt, a majority of Members of the European Parliament voted today for the European Commission’s legislative proposal [1] on including REPowerEU chapters in recovery and resilience plans and paved an investment path that will prolong the EU’s dependence on imported fossil gas and cause further lock-in into high-emission and high-cost fossil fuel sources.
Read more‘Destructive, undemocratic and possibly illegal’ – green groups slate leaked EU renewables emergency measures
Press release | 8 November, 2022EU plans for an emergency regulation to accelerate renewable energy deployment are highly destructive for biodiversity, undemocratic and possibly illegal, CEE Bankwatch Network and EuroNatur warned today, after a leaked text of the proposal was published by Context Energie.
Read moreRelated publications
Romanian decision-makers try to misuse REPowerEU funds for illegal hydropower plants
Briefing | 30 November, 2022 | Download PDFThis briefing describes how Romania’s Parliament and Government are again pushing to legalise illegal hydropower projects in protected areas using new opportunities for funding under the REPowerEU chapter of the EU recovery fund. It shows how a new dra
Renewables automatically of ‘overriding public interest’ – a counterproductive attack on EU nature legislation
Briefing | 14 November, 2022 | Download PDFThis briefing analyses the Commission’s proposal to declare renewables as automatically being of ‘overriding public interest’ in the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive under the REPowerEU legislative proposal. New rules would seriously undermin
Financial support for renewables in Latvia
Briefing | 28 October, 2022 | Download PDFThis briefing provides an overview of public funding and financial instruments for renewable energy source deployment in Latvia that have either already been launched or are planned to be launched in 2022, as well as provides insights on planned programmes that could help finance more renewables in the coming years.
