If the EBRD does not lead the energy transition, we will have to do it ourselves
December 18, 2018
In the middle of last week, negotiators in this year’s UN climate summit in Katowice, Poland, were scrambling to agree on guidelines for the Paris Agreement that would ensure global warming is capped at no more than 2 degrees. At the same time, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), one of the world’s key development banks, adopted a new energy lending strategy that ends its support for coal but keeps the door wide open for gas. Ioana Ciuta of CEE Bankwatch Network takes a closer look.
Challenges of communicating the energy transformation in Latvia [Video]
December 12, 2018
Renewable energy has gotten a bad rap in Latvia. Since the construction of hydroelectric power stations during the Soviet era to the recent installment of the first wind parks and the country’s feed-in tarrif system, the ‘mandatory procurement scheme,’ renewables have been used for nefarious purposes like fuelling populism during election campaigns.
Just Transition in four questions
December 3, 2018
At the COP24 in Katowice, Poland is inviting world leaders to endorse the Silesia Declaration on Solidarity and Just Transition. The document emphasizes the importance of decarbonizing economies to protect the climate in a socially responsible way, str
Poland’s Just Transition declaration is a fata morgana
December 1, 2018
Katowice – At the UN climate summit (COP 24) it is hosting, Poland has invited heads of state to adopt a ministerial Solidarity and Just Transition Declaration [1], calling for a fair deal to coal workers and communities affected by the energy transition. But the Polish government has no plans for any such transition – instead it remains keen to keep the country’s reliance on coal for decades to come. The Declaration is therefore nothing more than a mirage.
Just transition in Bulgaria – mission possible for Maritsa Iztok energy complex?
November 23, 2018
Reflecting the European trend for phasing out highly polluting fuels like coal, this preliminary analysis outlines options for a just energy transition in the broad region surrounding the heart of Bulgarian coal energy – Maritsa Iztok energy complex in
Lessons learned from Germany’s 20-year experiment in energy transformation
November 19, 2018
Germany pioneered broad support measures for renewable energy by the late 1990s. These measures, referred to as Energiewende or ‘energy transformation’, offer a valuable insight for other countries, which introduced support mechanisms for renewable energy later or have not done so yet.
Leaked World Bank report depicts Georgia’s Nenskra hydropower project as major liability
November 14, 2018
Successive international analyses have cast serious doubts over the financial viability of the planned Nenskra plant. While the Georgian government keeps the project’s contract confidential, a leaked World Bank report offers a scathing account of the fiscal implications of this hydropower development.
Carbon sleight of hand continues at Czech coal giant
November 12, 2018
The quasi state-owned Czech energy company ČEZ is up to its old tricks again. It celebrates a 30 % reduction in emissions, praising the public free allowances, and conveniently forgets to link the drop in emissions with the sale of some of its largest power plants.
Romania’s energy transition: to be or not to be
November 1, 2018
Facing numerous economic and environmental challenges, Romania’s energy industry needs a coherent, sustainable and stable action plan that prioritises transparency in decision-making and consultation of all involved. On 17 October, to identify the necessary measures, Bankwatch Romania organised a workshop titled Opportunities for transition to clean energy in Romania.
EBRD – still fixated on gas despite IPCC warnings
October 15, 2018
In its new draft strategy for the energy sector, meant to guide the bank’s lending between 2019-2023, the EBRD gives too much prominence to gas as a so-called “bridging fuel” on the way to decarbonisation – much more prominence than is given to energy savings and even to sustainable renewables.
