October 26, 2023 | Read more Geothermal energy as a sustainable source for district heating is gathering steam around the world. Many municipalities in the Western Balkans urgently need to break free from dirty and expensive fossil fuel-based heating. One little-known way of doing so is to tap the region’s geothermal potential lying right below their feet.
October 24, 2023 | Read more 27 civil society organisations have sent a joint letter to the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, (1) questioning a recent statement by Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi that the EU would help Montenegro to build a liquified gas (LNG) terminal at the port of Bar (2), and calling on the EU not to support the project.
October 20, 2023 | Read more Back in 2018, following a public call by the Centar municipality in Skopje, 26 buildings were approved to receive energy-efficient façades. Yet only one building has been retrofitted in five years, leaving the residents in the other 25 buildings back at square one, disheartened by the whole process and forced to look for other alternatives to insulate their old buildings.
October 5, 2023 | Read more As cities and towns across central and eastern Europe work toward decarbonising their heating systems, the need to deploy renewable energy alternatives in the sector has never been greater. The small town of Žabljak, nestled in the mountainous region of northern Montenegro, is at the forefront of this effort.
October 4, 2023 | Read more As the global biodiversity crisis grows ever more urgent, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (EBRD) environmental policy and practice is proving insufficient to prevent harm to nature, let alone allow its restoration. The Bank’s review of its environmental and social policy in the coming months must provide a proportionate response to the scale of the problem.
September 27, 2023 | Read more Over 6200 emails have been sent to the European Bank for Reconstruction Development (EBRD) calling for its next energy policy to end financing for fossil fuels and step up investments in the energy transition.
September 26, 2023 | Read more After eight years of litigation, Sofia’s Administrative Court overturned the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for a waste incineration plant in the Bulgarian capital. Expected to burn processed waste in the form of refuse-derived fuel (RDF), the plant would have put the health of Sofia’s residents at risk, polluted the air, generated toxic ash and created additional traffic, the court ruled.
September 22, 2023 | Read more It might seem counterintuitive for organisations that promote a sustainable energy transition to challenge EU initiatives to speed up renewable energy deployment. But due to undemocratic decisions that undermine environmental safeguards and public participation, that’s what we’ve been compelled to do.
September 21, 2023 | Read more Nature conservation and human rights organisations have secured an important first milestone in the fight against the planned 210 MW Skavica hydropower plant in the Albanian municipalities of Kukës and Dibër.
September 20, 2023 | Read more Twenty civil society organisations from Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Mongolia, Uganda, Ukraine and Uzbekistan, as well as seven international environmental and human rights organisations, are calling on the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to reconsider its approach to mining investments.
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