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EBRD Independent Recourse Mechanism review – Project Complaint Mechanism Rules of Procedure

Official document | 17 December, 2008 | Download PDF

Pumped storage plants are not green investments

Briefing | 10 December, 2008 | Download PDF

In November 2008, the National Environmental Investment Agency of Ukraine decided to direct money from the International Greenhouse Gases (GHG) Emissions Trading into the construction of pumped storage plants (PSPs). Yet PSPs totally contradict the idea, as they do not lead to the decrease of carbon emissions and will harm the environment.

South-east Europe energy policies

Briefing | 8 December, 2008 | Download PDF

South-east Europe (SEE) is at the hub of several contradictory factors influencing the development of its energy systems. On one hand, it is endowed with plentiful sources of renewable energy and has vast potential for increasing energy efficiency. On the other its legacy of communist-era power plants and inefficient transmission and distribution systems means that electricity generation continues to be associated with large, centralised, highly polluting facilities, or in some cases – particularly Albania – ageing and unreliable large hydropower plants.

Letter to EBRD president regarding financing for several highway sections in Slovakia

Advocacy letter | 5 December, 2008 | Download PDF

Recently the Slovak parliament adopted Act 669/2007 which allows motorways to be built on private property that has not been bought or expropriated at the time of construction. This creates favorable conditions for private investors engaged in building highways under public-private partnership ( PPP ) schemes. The act directly violates the right to the peaceful enjoyment of possessions guaranteed by the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and its protocols, which is the basic norm of the EU in the area of human rights.

A letter to Kazakh president Nazarbayev regarding special agreement with ArcelorMittal

Advocacy letter | 2 December, 2008 | Download PDF

The letter highlights the recently-signed memorandum of understanding between Kazakh government and ArcelorMittal Temirtau that grants the company a number of special conditions, like fixed pollution fees regardless of the actual volume of pollutant emissions, and a fixed corporate income tax regardless of the results of the company’s financial activities.