Two great new websites on all things coal
October 31, 2014
As anti-coal movements are gaining momentum around the world, two new websites offer a slew of information about the dirtiest of fossil fuels and the campaigns against it. They also offer a stark reminder that despite progress in the last years coal is far from dead.
Melting glaciers add to woes at Kumtor
October 28, 2014
Kumtor mine is the largest open pit gold deposit in Central Asia, whose majority shareholder since 2004 has been Centerra Gold, a Canadian mining company. The mine sits at an altitude of 4,000 meters above sea level, in the Tien Shan mountain range and among some of Kyrgyzstan’s – and the region’s – most important glaciers. These feed into the Naryn (Kyrgyzstan) and Syrdarya (Uzbekistan) rivers. Kumtor’s main gold-bearing ore lies under glaciers adjacent to Kyrgyzstan’s Sarychat-Ertash state reserve.
On Evgeny Vitishko, multilateral development banks and the criminalisation of public criticism
September 26, 2014
The recent rejection to release Evgeny Vitishko’s, an imprisoned environmental activist in Russia, illustrates the backlash against fundamental rights and freedoms in some countries. Multilateral development banks need to take notice of this trend and be more wary of the risk that their lending may strengthen authoritarian regimes.
Kyrgyzstan: a song in the mountains
June 20, 2014
‘Kyrgyzstan: a song in the mountains’ is photographic travelogue to the source of the nomadic Kyrgyz people, their traditions and environment. The book explores people’s relationship to the Kumtor gold mine in the mountains of Central Asia, which is slowly degrading the environment of the area. The reader takes a journey past high mountain lakes, the lost caravanserai of the Great Silk Road and developing farms. Farmers and mountain locals tell the traveler secrets about the lives of their ancestors and their hopes for the future of this beautiful place.
New mega gas pipelines redundant according to EU’s own projections
June 12, 2014
The EU’s plans for large new gas import pipelines and LNG terminals to Europe, outlined in the European Commission’s October 2013 list of priority energy projects as well as in the May blueprint for energy security to be discussed during tomorrow’s Energy Council, are not only counter to the EU’s long-term climate goals but also unjustified according to the EC’s own demand forecast.
EBRD transition role in the spotlight again
May 14, 2014
New analysis from CEE Bankwatch Network of how the EBRD conducts its financing and economic advisory activities finds serious deficiencies in the bank’s overall ‘market-oriented’ approach and catalogues a range of startling EBRD interventions in central and eastern Europe (CEE) and further afield that should prompt deeper examination of the bank’s promotional mantra “We invest in changing lives”.
Heavy on the process – EBRD review of governance policies may disappoint many
May 14, 2014
The EBRD’s board of directors is expected, on the eve of the bank’s annual meeting in Warsaw, to approve new ‘good governance’ policies that will have significant bearing on the institution’s future activities. The EBRD’s Environmental and Social Policy, its Public Information Policy and the Rules of Procedure for the EBRD Project Complaints Mechanism have been the feature of multi-stakeholder consultations across the EBRD’s regions of operation in 2013 and into 2014.
Stuck in the market? 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall: what now for the EBRD?
May 14, 2014
Harsh, embedded economic realities such as widespread, high unemployment across central and eastern Europe, as well as the discernible trend of democratic retrenchment in several EBRD recipient countries, are resulting in very mixed feelings about the transition process in this year of important anniversaries. This new analysis of how the EBRD conducts its financing and economic advisory activities finds serious deficiencies in the bank’s overall ‘market-oriented’ approach and catalogues a range of startling EBRD interventions.
European Development Bank: Backward Step on Rights – Draft Policy Would Weaken Protection
March 5, 2014
(London) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (EBRD) new draft Environment and Social Policy would fail to weed out abusive development projects, seven human rights and bank watchdog organizations said today in a joint statement. The bank’s consultation on the draft policy closes on March 5, 2014. It then has an opportunity to revise the policy before sending it to the bank’s board for approval in the coming months.
Sounding out the EBRD’s energy strategy: little ambition besides scrapping coal
December 13, 2013
At a closer look the EBRD’s new energy strategy, complimented for the restrictions it places on coal lending, reveals a shocking lack of operational knowledge to implement the ambitions outlined in its executive summary.
