Publications

This study reviews the development of greenfield hydro projects in Georgia and explores how current energy sector trends in the country relate – or otherwise – to sustainable energy principles.

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…

The explicit recognition of the Avoid-Shift-Improve framework in the EBRD’s draft transport strategy is welcome and serves as a useful guiding principle on where investments should be concentrated. However, how this principle is applied in practice is not explained throughou…

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 th…

This analysis looks to the proposed loan of the EBRD to Kuwait energy, scheduled for approval on 29 May. Primary findings are that: The EBRD failed to properly identify the beneficiary of the loan, or the country where it is incorporated (the tax haven Jersey). The fossil fu…

This poster examines positive and negative examples of the European Investment Bank’s energy projects. It illustrates why it matters what will be in the future energy lending policy of the EU’s bank. See an interactive version of the poster >>>

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.

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 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 economi…

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…

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 fin…

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 t…