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‘Destructive, undemocratic and possibly illegal’ – green groups slate leaked EU renewables emergency measures

Update 9 November: The Commission has now presented its proposal, which is available HERE but despite cosmetic changes, does nothing to address our concerns.

EU 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 [1]. 

The proposal – expected to be formally unveiled by the Commission this week – seeks to use Article 122 of the EU Treaty, which allows the EU to take emergency measures, particularly to overcome energy supply difficulties [2]. However, the draft does not actually entail quick fixes for the energy crisis – setting deadlines for permitting alone does not change the fundamental problems. In addition, the text goes far beyond economic measures with severe and disproportionate effects on key environmental laws. It also duplicates amendments to the Renewable Energy Directive currently being discussed by the European Parliament [3].

The proposal includes an extremely controversial article that would see all renewable energy projects presumed to be of ‘overriding public interest and serving public health and safety’. For example, if it is deemed that there are no suitable alternative solutions, a hydropower project could be built, no matter how much it damages Natura 2000 sites or degrades river water quality. This undermines existing EU environmental legislation which allows such harmful developments only after assessing projects on a case-by-case basis [4]. 

In contradiction with existing legislation, the proposal would also loosen the criteria for killing and significant disturbance of birds to be considered a deliberate act.

Gabriel Schwaderer, Executive Director at EuroNatur, said: ‘What is most frustrating is that this attack on nature will not even make a significant difference to EU renewable generation. Environmental legislation is not the problem but the fundamental safeguard needed – stripping away protection therefore does not solve the problem but simply creates other, or even more problems. This proposal in particular will also add significant legal uncertainty on top of that.’

He added: ‘Rapid development of sustainable renewables is crucial, but the Commission’s thoughtless dismantling of EU environmental legislation is opening Pandora’s box and leading us towards a biodiversity disaster. Today it’s the renewables industry getting special treatment, but which industries will stake their claims tomorrow?’

Pippa Gallop, Southeast Europe Energy Advisor at CEE Bankwatch, said: ‘The Council and Commission’s abuse of Article 122 of the EU Treaty to undermine existing environmental legislation – the Habitats, Birds and Water Framework Directives – without consulting the public or the EU Parliament, will most likely generate lengthy legal challenges and create a public backlash rather than speeding up renewables deployment.’

The Commission needs to drop this plan and concentrate on tackling the real barriers to renewables development, such as unnecessary spatial planning restrictions, low digitalisation of permitting procedures, and a lack of administrative capacity in permitting bodies’, she concluded.

Contacts

Pippa Gallop
Southeast Europe Energy Advisor
CEE Bankwatch Network
pippa.gallop@bankwatch.org
+385 (0)99 755 9787
Skype: pippa.gallop

Christian Stielow
Press and Public Relations Officer
EuroNatur
christian.stielow@euronatur.org
+49 (0)7732 92 72 15

Notes for editors

[1] Key sections of the leaked document are available at: https://twitter.com/AnnaHbrt/status/1589536615915229184

[2] On 20 October the EU Council called on the European Commission and the Council to make urgent proposals to tackle the energy crisis, including ‘fast-tracking of the simplification of permitting procedures in order to accelerate the rollout of renewables and grids including with emergency measures on the basis of Article 122 TFEU’.

[3] On 25 October the Environment Committee of the European Parliament voted on a set of amendments to the Renewable Energy Directive. Civil society organisations’ reactions to the vote can be found here,  here and here. The ITRE Committee is expected to vote on 14 November on a further set of amendments which fall under its remit.

[4] The proposed change regarding ‘overriding public interest and serving public health and safety’ will undermine the protection of Natura 2000 sites in the Habitats Directive (Articles 6(4) and 16(1)(c)), the protection of birds in the Birds Directive (Article 4(7)) and achieving good water status of rivers in the Water Framework Directive (Article 9(1)(a)). 

Lung Run Ugljevik: a race against time for a just transition

The town of Ugljevik is home to the region’s highest sulphur dioxide (SO2) emitter, despite having equipment that is supposed to reduce such emissions installed since 2020. These emissions can travel thousands of kilometers. They are toxic to humans when inhaled and can cause severe irritation to the nose and throat.  

It takes time to start the process of just transition and move away from polluting practices and industries, which also requires the commitment of the entire community, alongside the political will. By involving local residents, businesses and authorities in the organisation of this year’s event, the Lung Run highlighted the potential for sustainable development of the region and thriving community. Most of the products used in the event were prepared by local organisations that promote sustainable agriculture and prepare food using only local produce. 

On the other hand, Lung Run participants had a chance to run 10 kilometres in the shoes of local residents and experience the consequences of a short-term exposure to air pollution. Volunteers ran with portable air quality detectors which measured dust pollution and NOx in real time, in order to show the variations in pollution levels along the course and see a sample of what the local community is exposed to every day.  

One of the aims of the Lung Run is to raise awareness of the significant impact air pollution can have on the health of the communities, but also its contribution to biodiversity loss and climate change exacerbation. Air pollution recognises no borders and needs strong and decisive actions to mitigate its effects. 

Davor Pehchevski, Balkan air pollution campaign coordinator, CEE Bankwatch Network, said, ‘Although we started The Lung Run with monitoring air pollution in mind, this year’s edition was a true celebration of community engagement and cooperation, the living proof that if we want a successful transition of coal mining regions, the locals must be at the heart of it, driving the change. The international donor community that will finance just transition in the Western Balkans must always involve local communities and learn from their real needs’. 

Jelena Djuric Spasojevic, president of association Rudar, said, ‘We want to live a long healthy life here, in Ugljevik, where our home is. We want our children and grandchildren to have good job opportunities and not have to leave and go elsewhere for that. We believe that sustainable tourism, agriculture and farming are our future. The Lung Run event is a sneak peek of what the future can bring here and we welcome it’.  

Dragan Ostic, Center for Environment, said, ‘The people in Ugljevik have long suffered the impacts of coal mining and burning, as well as the limitations of living in a mono-industrial town without many employment options other than the industry which is harming them. The Lung Run showed that there are alternative business opportunities and that Ugljevik can become an attraction for a growing international running community that cares about the air they breathe’. 

 

This year’s edition was co-organised by CEE Bankwatch Network, Modern Escape Europe (Zenica) and the Center for Environment (Banja Luka).  

For more information contact:
Davor Pehchevschi, davor@bankwatch.org; +38971264087
Link for photos: https://we.tl/t-Ds6lXz1Sit 

 

Ukraine reconstruction: why we need electric urban transport investments now

A sustainable transport reconstruction in Ukraine’s cities should be a priority not only in long-term post-war recovery plans, but also in urgent support programs. On the occasion of the International Expert Conference on the Recovery, Reconstruction and Modernisation of Ukraine in Berlin on 25 October 2022, Bankwatch is releasing a video (embargoed till 25 October), explaining why electric urban transport should be a priority in the reconstruction of Ukraine’s cities.  As illustrated in the case of Chernihiv, the heavily damaged cities in Ukraine are left to rely on their own scarce resources to address the most urgent transport-related needs. 

While Ukraine’s 2030 National Transport Strategy envisages a full transition to electromobility, low-carbon transport was not a priority for the Ukrainian national and municipal governments before the war started. Now, with Ukraine’s road into the EU, the alignment of Ukraine’s transport system to the Green Deal becomes ever more important. 

However, to successfully rebuild the urban transport infrastructure, municipalities are in dire need of financial support. As of 1 June 2022, the country’s transport sector needed an estimated USD 74 billion for reconstruction, which is higher than in any of the major sectors, according to the World Bank’s Rapid Damages and Needs Assessment. 

Although Ukraine’s cities are still vulnerable to potential damage resulting from Russia’s aggression, there is a clear need for rebuilding critical infrastructure now to allow people to move around and help those that have been displaced return home.  

Vitana Oliinyk, CEE Bankwatch Network / Ecoaction – “With the help of international investors and donors, Ukraine has a unique chance to build a safe, reliable, green and effective urban transport system independent from fossil fuels imported from Russia.”  

Viktor Zagreba, head of NGO Vision Zero said – “The Ukrainian government should implement the National Transport Strategy’s Action Plan. There are 17 tasks targeting sustainable urban mobility, and there has been almost no progress on them at all.” 

Daniel Popov, CEE Bankwatch Network – “Reconstruction funds should be used for a profound transformation of the Ukrainian transport system. Its main result should be zero emissions and public wellbeing as required by the EU strategies and legislation. The investments should support Ukraine’s and EU economies by choosing and promoting the highest standards for a green reconstruction. Such transformation with broad benefits has to be based on a decentralised electricity supply from renewable energy sources instead of big thermal power plants or nuclear.” 

 

Contacts 

Viktoriia-Anna Oliinyk, National Coordinator – Ukraine, CEE Bankwatch Network
vitana.oliinyk@bankwatch.org
+380996105949 

Viktor Zagreba, head of NGO Vision Zero
viktor@zagreba.com 

Vladlena Martsynkevych, Project leader, CEE Bankwatch Network
vladlena@bankwatch.org
+421950828133 

Notes for editors: 

  • On average, 50 per cent of Ukraine’s urban dwellers commute via public transport. 
  • Private cars are the biggest polluters in Ukrainian cities, responsible for as much as 84 per cent of air pollution.  
  • The latest missile shelling of cities across Ukraine on 10 October damaged 70 facilities and left a huge hole in Kyiv’s central road, where people were commuting to work. Further shelling continues to damage critical infrastructure.  
  • So far, only five cities have developed and adopted sustainable urban mobility plans (SUMPs) to raise the attractiveness, safety and security of walking and cycling.  
  • The Draft Ukraine Recovery Plan: Recovery and development of infrastructure presented in Lugano on 4-5 July 2022 does not sufficiently address electric urban transport, cycling and charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. The plan focuses on automobile traffic, supporting further dependency on fossil fuels and funnelling money into the road sector. 

Reaction to the European Parliament Environment Committee vote on amendments to the Renewable Energy Directive

The Commission’s proposal to automatically declare renewables as being of ‘overriding public interest’ is a particularly gratuitous attack on the EU’s nature legislation. It would seriously undermine the Habitats Directive without significantly increasing overall renewables capacity. 

We urgently need to speed up sustainable forms of renewable energy, but exempting them from environmental rules won’t help. EU environmental law is already flexible enough to allow rapid renewables development; further eroding it will just cause legal chaos and public resistance. 

If these proposals make it into law, the public will no longer be consulted on individual renewables projects in go-to areas. Damaging projects will be able to go ahead in Natura 2000 protected areas, irrespective of their impact. Trying to force them through without consulting people will inevitably end in lengthy court battles. 

We’ll have two parallel environmental law regimes for renewables – one in the EIA Directive, Habitats Directive etc. and a hyperspeed one in the Renewable Energy Directive. This will increase complications for Member States and increase legal uncertainty for project developers. 

Pippa Gallop, Southeast Europe Energy Advisor with CEE Bankwatch Network, said, ‘In its vote on amendments to the Renewable Energy Directive, the Environment Committee succumbed to the European Commission’s poorly thought-out proposals to bulldoze EU environmental safeguards by the back door.’  

For more information contact:   
Pippa Gallop, Southeast Europe Energy Advisor, CEE Bankwatch Network
pippa.gallop@bankwatch.org 

New report: Southeast Europe hydropower investment risks are high and rising

The report is available at: https://bankwatch.org/publication/why-hydropower-in-southeast-europe-is-a-risky-investment

Although hundreds of small hydropower plants – which are highly damaging for biodiversity – have been built across the region in the last decade, attempts to build greenfield hydropower plants of larger than 10 MW have largely been unsuccessful, with only Albania and Slovenia managing to do so.

Vulnerability to drought, legal issues, increasing public resistance and lack of financing are among the factors which have stopped a slew of large hydropower projects in recent years, including two on the Vjosa river in Albania, two in North Macedonia’s Mavrovo National Park, and several on the rivers Morača and Vrbas in Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Hydropower, together with coal, has traditionally played a major role in southeast Europe, but climate change is challenging this role. Albania has added around 600 MW in large plants and several more hundred megawatts of smaller plants since 2010, yet average hydropower generation barely increased between 2010 and 2020. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro, which added only small hydropower plants, average generation even decreased slightly.

Undeterred, the region’s governments and utilities are keen to build even more large hydropower. Bosnia and Herzegovina is particularly ambitious, planning at least 12 large dams despite its failure to complete a single large greenfield plant in the last decade.

Financing is becoming more scarce as the European Investment Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Germany’s KfW have become more cautious of late, leaving Chinese and Turkish banks, as well as the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), among the few willing to bet on such a risky sector.

Yet despite Chinese companies being involved in several projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina – including the Ulog plant on the upper Neretva, a series of three plants on the Bistrica, and potentially also another three plants on the upper Drina – the only confirmed Chinese financing is for the controversial 160 MW Dabar plant, for which a EUR 180 million Eximbank loan was signed in January this year.

Pippa Gallop, CEE Bankwatch Network – ‘Hydropower generation in the region is going up and down like a yo-yo due to climate change, making it futile to add more dams. This is most obvious in countries like Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro that are already quite hydropower-dependent. It’s utterly incomprehensible that as of the end of 2021, Montenegro only had 2.5 MW of solar photovoltaics installed. Diversification of renewables and a serious ramping up of energy efficiency is urgently needed.’ 

Amelie Huber, EuroNatur Foundation – ‘Hydropower investors continue to be lured by the prospects of a free energy source that’s always available, but hydropower has long ceased to be that: time and cost overruns are the order of the day, especially when it comes to large hydro, and river flow is no longer reliable. And the very negative impact of hydropower on the biodiversity of river systems has to be taken into account on top of that. Countries whose energy systems depend on hydro will pay a high price as climate change impacts intensify and droughts and floods become more frequent.’

Ulrich Eichelmann from Riverwatch – ‘Besides the energy-related aspects that speak against damming the Balkan rivers, there is also the fact that rivers like the Neretva, Drina and others are of incredible ecological value. Would you dare to destroy the last remaining old growth forests to produce pellets? We´d do the same with these remaining pristine rivers if we allow them to be dammed. Fortunately, people are more and more understanding the true value of the Balkan rivers and are increasingly fighting the dam projects and winning.’

 

Contacts

Pippa Gallop, Southeast Europe Energy Advisor, CEE Bankwatch Network

pippa.gallop@bankwatch.org

+385 99 755 9787

Skype pippa.gallop

 

Christian Stielow
EuroNatur
christian.stielow@euronatur.org

+49 07732 927215

 

Cornelia Wieser

Riverwatch

cornelia.wieser@riverwatch.eu

+43 650 4544784

 

Petra Boic Petrac

WWF Adria

ppetrac@wwfadria.org

+385 91 2905976

 

Notes for editors

(1) The Southeast European countries covered by the report are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia.

(2) The project case studies are:

  • Skavica, Albania
  • Bistrica B-1, B-2, B-3, Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Buk Bijela / Upper Drina, Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Dabar / Upper Horizons, Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Ulog and Upper Neretva, Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Janjići, Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Yadenitsa, Bulgaria
  • Kosinj/Senj II, Croatia
  • Komarnica, Montenegro

The Shared Green Deal project begins work on people-centered climate neutrality by 2050

Much of the recent focus on tackling climate change has centred on green technology development. Shared Green Deal, however, will involve 24 separate ‘social experiments’ – taking place in neighbourhoods across Europe – looking at how organisations and individuals can work together to make our daily lives more sustainable.  

The project will work directly with families in fuel poverty, as well as with schools, housing associations and businesses. Skill-sharing workshops, toolkits for other local networks, and accessible training videos will be developed which focus on sharing energy-saving know-how between generations. 

A total of 22 partner institutions, including Bankwatch, from across Europe will together examine the role Social Sciences and Humanities can play in helping countries, cities and neighbourhoods dramatically reduce their carbon emissions as part of the European Green Deal programme.  

In CEE Bankwatch Network we will be focusing on clean energy, which is one of the key priorities of the European Green Deal, since its production and use accounts for more than 75% of the EU’s greenhouse gas emission. To make this transition successful and just, we need to involve stakeholders and local communities from the ground by co-creating visions of desirable energy futures, said Christophe Jost, Bankwatch’s EU Policy Officer.  

The pledge that no person or place is left behind during the transition to a low-carbon society is a key part of the European Green Deal, and diversity and inclusivity will be at the heart of Shared Green Deal project to ensure disadvantaged and vulnerable social groups are supported with the changes taking place. 

See more information at the official project website.