Extra caution needed for Plomin C coal power plant project due to heightened corruption risks
October 2, 2014
The consortium that has been chosen as the preferred bidder for the controversial Plomin C 500 MW coal power plant project in Croatia consists of the two companies Marubeni and Alstom. Both have been involved in corruption scandals recently that led to sanctions from financing institutions. This briefing offers details on these cases.
Balkans-Visegrad civil society exchange: case studies from internships
September 24, 2014
A compilation of 4 case studies as a result of internships carried out in Visegrad countries – Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia – by Bankwatch member and partner organisations CEKOR (Serbia), Center for Environment (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and EDEN Center (Albania).
Zagreb residents protest incinerator plans ahead of new waste management plan approval
September 22, 2014
I had a strong sense of deja-vu today. On 31 March 2008, residents of the Zagreb suburb of Resnik held a protest against plans for a 385 000 tonnes per year waste incinerator which was to be built nearby. It was a sunny day and the majority of Resnik’s residents came along to show their opposition to yet another industrial facility being built in their neighbourhood and to push for a waste management system built on waste prevention and recycling.
Cross-border coal pollution for the first time under scrutiny by UN body
September 22, 2014
A new unit at the Kostolac coal-fired power plant in Serbia is the first coal project to be considered by the Espoo Convention Implementation Committee for transboundary impacts.
Serbian energy sector needs overhaul
September 10, 2014
The news portal Deutsche Welle has visited the Kolubara lignite mine in Serbia and produced a short clip about the difficulties faced by the Serbian energy sector. Our Serbian colleague Nikola Perusic speaks in the video about the terrible landslide that happened in May 2013.
The future is ash-grey for people in Turceni, Romania
September 9, 2014
People in the Submaidane-Turceni area in Romania live their lives in coal ash that still hasn’t been cleaned up after an accident that took place in December 2013 at an ash deposit belonging to the Oltenia Energy Complex in Turceni.
Romanian government is seeking financial support in China for time travel into a lignite past
September 3, 2014
The renewables capacity installed in Romania has grown tenfold in the last five years and constitutes 23 percent of Romania’s installed energy capacity. Still, the government is pushing for new lignite-fired power plants.
Public in Bosnia-Herzegovina to pay for shaky economics of Tuzla 7 coal plant, but will officials take heed?
July 21, 2014
After several years of developments related to a seventh unit at the Tuzla power plant in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the public is now able to understand the plant’s economics, thanks to a document published in the run-up to a debate in the Federation of BiH parliament this week. It might have been a better idea to have this debate earlier, considering that the news is not exactly good for the project developer, Elektroprivreda BiH (EPBiH).
Briefing: Turceni coal power plant rehabilitation
July 12, 2014
While it may seem to be an environmental project at a quick glance, there are a number of facts that question the justification of the Turceni unit 6 rehabilitation project. The Turceni unit 6 project isn’t just a rehabilitation of the power plant unit, it is part of a county-wide operation with ignored social and environmental impacts. The immediate question is whether this is it really a pollution reduction project.
EBRD in Serbia: Don’t use floods to prop up coal
July 7, 2014
The EBRD should stick to its newly approved Energy Strategy and reject any investments in the Serbian coal sector, argue a group of 7 international NGOs in a letter sent to the bank’s board of directors today. The groups were concerned with recent statements by the EBRD according to which the bank’s regional flood response in the Balkans could include “rehabilitation of (…) damaged power stations and transmission and distribution networks.”
