April 15, 2021 | Read more Instead of reforms, the country plans to rehab an irrigation system that can potentially destroy wetlands, and without transparency and public dialogue, the plan cements business-as-usual. With a 30 April deadline for submitting national recovery plans approaching and recent parliamentary elections, the Bulgarian government is failing to propose reforms and measures for biodiversity, sustainable agriculture and low carbon economy. Instead, actions such as rehabilitating state-owned irrigation systems not only contradict national strategies but might damage valuable wetland habitats. A lack of transparency and public dialogue casts a further shadow on the process.
April 14, 2021 | Read more The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) was created in 1991 at a unique moment in history: after the fall of the Berlin wall, the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the run-up for the Rio Earth Summit on Sustainable Development and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
April 12, 2021 | Read more Instead of proposing measures that protect nature, countries plan to spend recovery money on projects that jeopardise the EU’s biodiversity objectives. Countries can still reverse this worrying trend before it’s too late.
April 9, 2021 | Read more In just a few months, a protest against a large dam on the Rioni River has grown from a handful of people in Lechkhumi, western Georgia into a national demonstration. On the International Day of Action for Rivers, 14 March, thousands of Georgians made history with the largest environmental protest in the country’s recent past.
April 8, 2021 | Read more There is less than one month left for Member States to submit their national recovery and resilience plans to the European Commission. Yet, the Latvian plan is still far from fulfilling the Commission’s requirements to allocate at least 37% of proposed measures to achieving climate objectives.
March 31, 2021 | Read more The energy sector damages rivers, lakes and other habitats in the countries participating in the Energy Community Treaty, and the Treaty’s current rules are not sufficient to protect them. Our new analysis shows how the EU’s nature and water Directives can be adapted to help address this problem.
March 30, 2021 | Read more The Blagoevgradska Bistritsa hydropower cascade was planned to use only the drinking water of the town of Blagoevgrad. Eight years later, it has used more than double the water allowed, leaving the river ‘even without frogs’. Our latest report shows the need for more scrutiny of EIB and EBRD lending through intermediary banks.
March 30, 2021 | Read more Thanks to a strong push from the European Commission, Slovakia’s national recovery and resilience plan allocates nearly three billion euros for green, climate-friendly investments. The plan includes commendable aims to renovate buildings, pursue renewable energy sources, clean up dirty industries and develop more sustainable transport infrastructure.
March 29, 2021 | Read more This Tuesday, 30 March, lawmakers in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) will vote on an amendment to the Law on Renewable Energy. Composed of just one paragraph, the devil is truly in the detail.
March 26, 2021 | Read more International civil society urges the Uzbek government and development banks to support the registration of the trade union in a joint statement released today, as workers organising the union are met with threats.
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