January 31, 2012 | Read more Bishkek — Canadian company Centerra Gold, owner and operator of Kumtor Mine, the largest gold mine in Central Asia managed by a Western company, has been contaminating local waters and glaciers while hiding evidence of such negative impacts from public oversight, reveals a report authored by an independent US-based expert published today by CEE Bankwatch Network (1). Had it operated in its home country Canada, Centerra’s practices would have caused the company serious trouble with the law.
January 30, 2012 | Read more A new report launched today by CEE Bankwatch Network, urgewald and OT Watch (1), following on-the-ground research in Mongolia, details the impact of the country’s mining boom on local populations, shedding light on the ignored side of one of the biggest business stories of today: Mongolia’s planned public offering of the state-owned Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi and the rights to one of the world’s largest untapped coal reserves. (2)
January 27, 2012 | Read more Earlier this week we published an overview of two Central Asian mining projects financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development – the Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan and the Ukhaa Khudag coal mine in Mongolia’s south Gobi desert, which is part of the much larger – in fact the world’s largest – coal deposit at Tavan Tolgoi.
January 25, 2012 | Read more A look at mining projects in Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia reveal a need to carefully revise the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s involvement in the exploitation of natural resources.
January 19, 2012 | Read more The announcement of German energy giant RWE to reconsider its plans for the Nabucco pipeline is just the last in a series of confusingly conflicting signals regarding the fate of this gargantuan project.
January 16, 2012 | Read more As pressures mount on western European banks to shore up capital ratios and with 2012 economic growth forecasts for Europe falling close to zero, officials from the European Central Bank, the European Commission, and several international financial institutions (IFIs) are meeting today in Vienna with regulators from CEE countries to discuss a second round of financial support for a fragile CEE banking sector.
January 13, 2012 | Read more Shortly after 80 000 people took to Moscow’s streets at the end of December to oppose the 4 December controversial parliamentary elections that resulted in United Russia retaining control of parliament, Bankwatch ally and Khimki forest defender Yaroslav Nikitenko was forced to spend ten days in jail over a fabricated administrative crime.
January 3, 2012 | Read more Baffled by an EIB loan to a holiday resort in Morocco, our friends from Counter Balance – Challenging the European Investment Bank had a closer look at the kind of development promoted there and came back with this wonderfully illustrative video.
December 16, 2011 | Read more Croatian environmental groups today held a protest action outside of the Croatian parliament calling on the country’s new government not to go ahead with the controversial EBRD-financed EUR 150 million Ombla HPP project.
December 12, 2011 | Read more On December 13, the EIB’s Board of Directors is about to approve the institution’s new Transport Policy. This new document constitutes an upgrade of the older 2007 Transport Policy of the bank which tries to incorporate the EU’s progressive agenda on the prevention of climate change (documents such as the “Europe 2020 Strategy” and the “Roadmap for moving to a competitive low-carbon economy in 2050”).
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