Ukrainian ecologists call on EU not to fund new coal plants
June 6, 2013
A Ukrainian application for European funding of two new coal plants would cause massive health and environmental damage to local people from nitrogen oxide emissions and other related pollution effects, local environmental campaigners have told EurActiv.
[Campaign update] The reality of resettlement in Kolubara: Out of the frying pan into the fire
June 4, 2013
A quick visit to the Kolubara mining basin reveals that the resettlement there looks nothing like the presentation from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
How strong are human rights safeguards in the EBRD’s policies? Lessons learned from the Kolubara project
May 30, 2013
Experience with the implementation of the Environmental and Social Policy in the case of several controversial projects suggests that the EBRD’s environmental and social safeguards are not robust enough and need strengthened. The case of the Kolubara coal mine ‘Environmental Improvement’ project, Serbia illustrates how the policy places most responsibilities on the client, and EBRD assessment and monitoring are excessively reliant on input from the client, even in cases when feedback from NGOs and communities consistently contradicts the claims of the project sponsor.
Letter on Kolubara lignite mine to the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia
May 28, 2013
The letter brings the resettlement and expropriation issues that are connected to the Kolubara lignite mine to the attention of the EU’s representation in Serbia. Enclosed were recent letters to the EBRD and the Serbian finance minister (pdf) as well as a guardian article that illustrates the urgency of these problems.
Divesting from coal is not ideology but climate science – a reminder for the EBRD
May 14, 2013
The energy director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has made astonishing statements about coal investments prompting Bankwatch’s EBRD campaign team to react.
Open letter to Serbian Minister for Finance and Economy concerning Kolubara resettlement
May 14, 2013
The open letter – signed by Srpski Centar Ekologije, Uneco Kolubara, and Bankwatch member group CEKOR – raises issues with resettlement and expropriations connected to the Kolubara lignite mine that are not adequately addressed.
Fair treatment is a long time coming at Serbia’s Kolubara lignite mine
May 13, 2013
People from the Kolubara mine basin in Serbia have many stories to tell about the hardships they face due to the lignite mining operations. Serbian Bankwatcher Nikola Perusic adds his account to two stories in the guardian and in Bankwatch Mail 56.
No end in sight for EBRD coal finance
May 10, 2013
Istanbul – With the 2013 EBRD annual meetings underway and in spite of repeated commitments to sustainability, the bank is set to continue financing coal projects that will dangerously aggravate climate change.
Mounting violations at Cairo refinery project seeking EBRD finance
May 10, 2013
A USD 3.7 billion refinery expansion project inside urban Cairo attracting international public development finance, including potentially from the EBRD, is also attracting major controversy as a result of forced evictions, pollution and concerns about the involvement of financial entities linked to the deposed Mubarak regime.
Ukraine’s nuclear expansion plans under fire from UN body, EBRD ‘safety loan’ called into question again
May 10, 2013
In a landmark ruling laid out in a March 25 letter to the Ukrainian Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Implementation Commission of the United Nations Espoo Convention has deemed that Ukraine’s plans to expand the lifetime of its old nuclear reactors is in breach of the convention – the same convention that Ukraine ratified in 1999. Ukrainian campaigners believe that this should lead the EBRD to halt the disbursement of a EUR 300 million ‘nuclear safety’ loan agreed with Ukraine’s state nuclear operator just days prior to the issuing of the Espoo verdict.
