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The EBRD and the Polish coal sector

Briefing | 15 May, 2011 | Download PDF

The Polish energy market is dominated by coal, but two thirds of the installed coal capacity is older than 30 years. The EBRD could play a crucial role in the restructuring of this market by providing financial assistance to energy efficiency projects and renewable energy and at the same time refraining from further fossil fuel investments. Update: The EBRD confirmed during later meetings that it will not finance any coal project in Poland.


Paravani Hydro Power Plant, Georgia

Briefing | 15 May, 2011 | Download PDF

The Turkish company Georgian Urban Energy (GUE) has requested a USD 44 million EBRD loan for the Paravani HPP, an 87 MW plant using a 14 km derivation tunnel in order to divert water from the Paravani river to the Mtkvari river. Bankwatch member group Green Alternative has deep concerns regarding the project’s potential negative impacts as well as its overall justification.


Ombla Hydro Power Plant, Croatia

Briefing | 15 May, 2011 | Download PDF

The hydropower plant, planned to be constructed underground in a karst area near Dubrovnik, brings with it specific hydrological and ecological impacts, particularly on cave-dwelling species. Consequently, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process is of utmost importance, but has been held 11 years before the beginning of procurement. Opportunities for the public to comment on and influence the project’s decision making process have thus been highly questionable.


Is the EBRD’s policy on offshore financial centres meaningful?

Briefing | 15 May, 2011 | Download PDF

In 2010 the EBRD approved a senior loan of up to RUB 650 million (around EUR 16 million) for the New Forwarding Company (Novaya perevozochnaya kompaniya – NPK), the main operating subsidiary of Globaltrans Investment Plc, the top private railway transportation company in Russia. When trying to find out who owns GlobalTrans Investment, the trail stops in the Bahamas. What does this case mean for the EBRD’s policy on offshore jurisdictions and transparency more generally?


Nabucco and the Arab Spring

Briefing | 15 May, 2011 | Download PDF

The democratic revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East have not quite spread it to the authoritarian regimes of Central Asia. Nevertheless nervous reactions among leaders in these countries have proven another weakness of the proposed Nabucco pipeline project, in that the stable gas supplies promised by the project under the capacious term “energy security” are much less “secure” than previously expected.