May 5, 2025 | Read more Supported by international development banks and promoted as a strategic corridor linking Asia to Europe, Georgia’s East-West highway is central to the country’s ambitions of becoming a regional transit hub. With a price tag of EUR 1.2 billion, much of which is financed through loans from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), European Investment Bank (EIB), and the World Bank (WB), the highway construction project was framed as a symbol of progress, promising speed, connectivity and economic growth.
April 24, 2025 | Read more Residents of Karaganda, a major industrial city in central Kazakhstan, originally welcomed plans to modernise the larger of its two wastewater treatment plants with the help of a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). However, the design of the project – revealed during public hearings – has prompted significant concerns among both citizens and experts. Over the past year, a local civil society organisation has been advocating for a review of the design, highlighting technical flaws and violations of stakeholder engagement obligations.
April 17, 2025 | Read more Ukraine’s largest poultry producer, Myronivsky Hliboproduct (MHP), has received over a billion dollars in loans from international development banks since 2010 and has significantly expanded its operations. Local communities and environmental advocates argue that the company has failed to adequately address concerns regarding its environmental impact. This analysis examines the environmental issues surrounding MHP’s Vinnytsia Poultry Farm, focusing on water quality concerns and what appears to be insufficient environmental monitoring, to highlight what many stakeholders perceive as an urgent need for enhanced oversight of large agribusiness operations in Ukraine.
April 14, 2025 | Read more On the afternoon of 28 March, residents, municipal representatives, and locally elected officials joined a panel of experts in the Latvian city of Daugavpils to discuss the future of cycling in the city. The aim of the event was to identify existing challenges as well as practical solutions that might encourage more residents to choose cycling as a regular mode of transport.
April 11, 2025 | Read more The Western Balkans is facing a pressing energy crisis, largely due to outdated district heating systems that waste vast amounts of energy. In Serbia alone, district heating networks serve over 700,0000 households, yet inefficiencies have led to energy losses of up to 12 per cent, resulting in higher costs and increased greenhouse gas emissions. Energy consumption per square metre is nearly triple that of western Europe, mainly due to poor insulation and ageing infrastructure. Rising energy prices and reliance on often imported fossil fuels make energy efficiency an economic necessity.
March 25, 2025 | Read more The most significant uses of peat in the world are for the creation of soil substrates and the production of energy. In 2022, the peat sector was responsible for 10.7 per cent of Latvia’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Peatlands store twice as much carbon as forests worldwide.
March 20, 2025 | Read more The profound transformation of Europe’s energy sector in response to climate change and the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions is having a particularly significant impact on regions that have long relied on fossil fuels, especially coal mining.
March 14, 2025 | Read more The future of Central Asia’s key rivers and lakes is at risk, warn international environmental groups Rivers without Boundaries, International Rivers, Friends of the Earth US, Urgewald and CEE Bankwatch Network in a formal request sent today to the World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), European Investment Bank (EIB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), Islamic Development Bank (ISDB) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
March 10, 2025 | Read more A new report by Bankwatch, Za Zemiata and Zelena Akcija, in collaboration with Zero Waste Europe, reveals that current EU budget allocations for circular economy and municipal waste management measures are insufficient to help central and eastern European countries catch up with the EU’s decarbonisation targets.
March 7, 2025 | Read more In the current age of ‘competent white men’, ‘traditional family values’ and the EU’s simplified sustainable finance regulations, what lies in store for the inclusion and equality policies of Europe’s public development banks?
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