July 28, 2020 | Read more The energy projects proposed by the Energy Community countries for priority status, including privileged access to public funds, have now passed the evaluation stage, expecting a final decision by the year’s end. On the bright side, at least two megalomaniac projects were dropped. On the dark one, the remaining projects floor the gas pedal.
July 23, 2020 | Read more Relying on experience with supporting the transition of coal regions in seven countries across central and eastern Europe, CEE Bankwatch Network launches today a checklist meant to help experts, national authorities and local communities get Territorial Plans right.
July 16, 2020 | Read more Ahead of this week’s European Council meeting where Heads of State will gather to discuss and potentially agree on the next term EU budget, the report analyses investments and measures presented in the NECPs of the following 14 Member States: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. It points out the measures in NECPs that are set to receive funding from the next EU budget and recovery funding, makes the case for significant spending improvements to boost climate ambition, and indicates harmful measures in the NECPs that should be excluded from the EU funding.
July 15, 2020 | Read more As the European Commission gears up to launch an Initiative meant to help coal regions in the Western Balkans and Ukraine transition to sustainable economies, Bankwatch publishes today a set of recommendations based on its experience working with the Platform for Coal Regions in Transition, on which the new Initiative will be modelled.
July 14, 2020 | Read more More than 90 per cent of Kosovo’s electricity generation comes from the two coal-fired power plants, Kosova A and Kosova B. But they are also the biggest polluters in the country and are responsible for most of the air pollution in the town of Obiliq, located between the two plants.
July 9, 2020 | Read more The European Parliament has called on the European Investment Bank (EIB), the world’s largest public lender, to facilitate Europe’s effort to tackle the climate crisis by fully aligning its investment policies and practices with the Paris climate accord.
July 8, 2020 | Read more Grasping what a 600% breach of allowed SO2 emissions means is not an easy job, but our data visualisation does just that. In addition to choking the communities where coal power plants are located, SO2 pollution from the Western Balkans often reaches as far as Russia and the Black Sea Coast to the east and Germany to the West!
June 26, 2020 | Read more An environmental impact assessment process is currently ongoing to expand the open-cast lignite mine at Gacko in Bosnia-Herzegovina. But the mine expansion started long ago.
June 23, 2020 | Read more Two and a half years since pollution control legislation under the Energy Community Treaty obliged Western Balkan governments to apply EU norms, a new Bankwatch analysis finds air pollution – primarily sulphur dioxide (SO2) and dust emissions – from coal-fired power plants remains stubbornly high, choking communities across the region and beyond.
June 22, 2020 | Read more Strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP) are a form of often frivolous litigation used by corporations to intimidate and punish critics and silence their right to free speech. Lydian international, the tax haven-listed mining company, has repeatedly deployed the tactic against journalists and civil society as it presses forward with the Amulsar gold mine in Armenia, whilst the EBRD has stood by silently.
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