Financing for hydropower in protected areas of southeast Europe: update
March 16, 2018
Multilateral development banks have supported no fewer than 82 hydropower projects across southeast Europe, including in protected areas. The study finds that the number of hydropower projects in the region that enjoy financial support from multilatera
AIIB financial intermediaries
January 19, 2018
In 2017, the AIIB has invested in three financial institutions – the Indonesia Regional Infrastructure Development Fund, the India Infrastructure Fund, and the Emerging Asia Fund – and that further institutionss are on the proposed projects list, inclu
Green Climate Fund’s preference for big players weakens transparency
October 31, 2017
The 18th meeting of the Green Climate Fund in the beginning of October confirmed again that big institutions are getting the biggest share of finances. This time it was the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development who left its mark.
“To the best of our knowledge”: How to improve the transparency and accountability of intermediated EBRD investments in three steps
May 9, 2017
Disbursing public money via private-sector controlled financial intermediaries (FIs) is a means to an end: reaching a larger set of smaller beneficiaries. It has its strong rationale, in particular when it comes to renewable energy projects that, in co
New report reveals the ‘dark side’ of EIB funds: how the EU’s bank supports non-transparent investment funds based in tax havens
September 14, 2016
Counter Balance launches today a new report that critically analyses a little-known part of the European Investment Bank (EIB)’s operations: its use of private equity funds. The report is available for download at http://www.counter-balance.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/The-dark-side-of-EIB-funds_report.pdf The report presents a number of statistics and facts about recent investment funds financed by the EIB during the period 2011-2015.
9 reasons why the EU’s bank is no climate leader
December 17, 2015
In the run-up to, during and now, with a global deal reached, after the Paris climate summit, the world’s largest public lender, the European Investment Bank (EIB), is positioning itself as a climate pioneer. But is the bank really fit for this role? Can the EIB make a break from its history of financing fossil fuels and polluting forms of transportation after decades of cosy relations with the biggest culprits?
Financing the post-2015 agenda – the problematic role of development banks
September 24, 2015
The heavy involvement of international financial institutions in the post-2015 development agenda raises serious questions for civil society around the world on whether the SDGs will manage to address the root causes of inequality, poverty and environmental degradation.
EIB set to weaken transparency standards
January 27, 2015
Brussels — One week before the European Investment Bank’s board of directors is expected to approve the bank’s new transparency policy, 13 civil society groups* monitoring the EIB warn that, as it stands, the draft policy amounts to a weakening of the already dismal transparency standards of the EU’s house bank.
EBRD-EIB role in Slovak private equity gas debacle questioned
December 2, 2014
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has revealed, in a letter of late October to Bankwatch’s Slovak member group Friends of the Earth-CEPA, that the EnerCap Power Fund, a private equity investor, has pulled out of the controversial COGEN gas power plant being developed in the northern Slovakian town of Považský Chlmec.
The EIB and development, a chance to clean up the bank’s act
July 11, 2013
The current review of the European Investment Bank’s mandate for lending outside of the EU brings some of the pitfalls of the bank’s development lending to the fore and offers a chance for improvements.
