Review of the EBRD’s Project Complaint Mechanism – comments on the existing policy
May 19, 2013
These comments on the existing Project Complaint Mechanism of the EBRD expands in a few places the pointers on the accountability mechanism that were prepared earlier.
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.
Community Power – putting people to the heart of energy systems
May 13, 2013
“Community energy projects” are energy projects providing for direct benefits to a group of local shareholders. The opportunity for residents to develop and own green energy infrastructure or to jointly leverage untapped energy saving potential, represents a range of economic and social opportunities such as job creation, business opportunities, lowering energy bills and acceptance of sustainable energy production.
Open letter: Civil society asks EBRD to withdraw from Ombla hydropower plant project
May 13, 2013
A new nature impact assessment of the proposed Ombla hydropower plant showed that the project could harm many of the 68 identified cave species, including the endemic ones. Based on these findings, civil society groups are calling on the EBRD to pull out from the project for which it has approved a EUR 123 million loan.
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.
Health impacts of coal quantified – public lenders urged to act
May 10, 2013
The findings of a recent report entitled ‘The unpaid health bill: How coal power plants make us sick’, released by the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL), detail the health impacts of existing coal in Europe and quantify the associated costs of mortality and chronic respiratory and cardiovascular disease due to coal pollution.
More dirty coal on the radar as EBRD announces new strategy for Kosovo
May 10, 2013
The EBRD’s new country strategy for Kosovo, announced by the bank on May 3 after Bankwatch Mail Issue 56 went to press, has confirmed what NGOs and others had feared in the consultation process for the EBRD’s first strategy in its new country of operation: that financial support for a new major lignite power plant is very much on the EBRD’s radar, despite evidence that Kosovo does not need such a power plant as well as the potential undermining of EU climate goals.
New EBRD Environmental and Social policy needs climate muscle and tightened safeguards for protected areas
May 10, 2013
If there is one sector in which the EBRD has been causing particular controversy in recent years, it is the energy sector. From lignite in Slovenia to hydropower in Georgia and nuclear in Ukraine, the bank has financed a series of projects that have incurred opposition from various quarters. Now that the EBRD is revising its Environmental and Social Policy it’s time to take a look at what needs to be learned from these projects.
Connie Hedegaard: Stop paying the polluters
May 10, 2013
“When the winds of change blow,” says an old Chinese proverb, “some build walls, and others build wind mills.”
