European Parliament fails to halt disastrous hydropower project jeopardising local livelihoods and endangered species
September 27, 2024
WWF and CEE Bankwatch Network question the EU Commission’s reasons for putting this decades-old project on the Danube river on its priority investment list.
42 civil society organisations call on EU leaders to secure funding for the just transition in the next EU budget
September 18, 2024
As the new European Commission and Parliament begin their mandates, 42 civil society organisations from across Europe have issued a statement (1) calling on EU leaders to ensure the continuation of the Just Transition Fund in the next EU budget.
Western Balkans: coal pollution increases due to government failures – new report
September 17, 2024
In 2023, Western Balkan governments’ dereliction of their law enforcement duties again allowed an increase in sulphur dioxide (SO2) pollution from the region’s antiquated coal power plants, according to the sixth edition of Bankwatch’s Comply or Close report, published today (1). Dust and nitrogen oxides (NOx) pollution from coal plants also continued to exceed legal limits.
Reaction to the European Court of Auditors’ report on the green transition in the EU’s recovery fund
September 12, 2024
The European Court of Auditors’ report on implementation of EU’s recovery fund, published yesterday, casts a new shadow over the contribution of the fund to the green transition.
Environmental NGOs demand halt to KfW controversial biomass investments in Serbia
July 29, 2024
41 environmental organisations from the Western Balkans, Germany, and across Europe have called on German state-owned development bank KfW to stop financing wood biomass energy in Serbia in order to avoid forest degradation risks and locking Serbia into further dependency on high-carbon energy sources.[1]
Western Balkans can leapfrog gas for solar and wind to power clean energy transition
July 16, 2024
Countries of the Western Balkans have enough prospective utility-scale solar and wind projects to generate four times more electricity than from gas-fired plants, saving billions of euros and avoiding significant carbon emissions in the process, according to a new report from Global Energy Monitor.
Urgent call for central and eastern European countries to raise their NECP climate ambitions
June 27, 2024
With the deadline (30 June) for EU Member States to submit their national energy and climate plans (NECPs) fast approaching, concerns are growing that CEE countries are not showing the ambition needed to meet their 2030 climate and energy targets.
EU climate fund bankrolling dirty energy expansion
June 25, 2024
As global temperatures continue to soar and climate disasters hit the most vulnerable, the EU’s little-known Modernisation Fund is propping up unsustainable energy infrastructure.
Environmental groups slate EU plans to weaken nature safeguards in the Western Balkans, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia
June 25, 2024
The European Commission must revise ill-advised plans to undermine nature protection rules for renewable energy projects – including hydropower and biomass – under the Energy Community Treaty (1), 40 civil society organisations today underlined in a joint letter.
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Motorway-affected residents submit complaint to the UN
June 24, 2024
A group of people whose land and houses are threatened by the EU-funded planned Corridor Vc (1) motorway south of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina have submitted a complaint to the United Nations Human Rights Council (2).
