Southeast Europe Energy Policy Officer
Email: pippa.gallop AT bankwatch.orgTel.: +385 99 755 97 87
Pippa works as Bankwatch Southeast Europe energy advisor, with a specialisation in coal and hydropower in the Western Balkans. She is based in Zagreb, Croatia and speaks English, Croatian and rusty German.
More from Pippa Gallop
Slovenia’s state-owned Hidroelektrarne na Spodnji Savi (HESS) has for two decades been trying to build the controversial Mokrice hydropower plant on the river Sava. But poor quality environmental studies have been repeatedly quashed in court by the Slovenian Native Fish Society, and a recent transboundary assessment’s claims that the impacts will stop at the Croatian border are far from convincing.
When the Republika Srpska authorities signed contracts with the China Eximbank to finance the Dabar hydropower plant at the end of 2021, it seemed like the first and largest part of the Upper Horizons complex was a done deal. Today, more than four years later, obstacles are piling up for this controversial project, providing a much-needed opportunity to rethink the whole idea.
The inclusion of electricity in the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) has raised questions about CBAM’s impacts on EU-Western Balkans market integration. But in a new joint civil society position paper, we argue that market integration can only work with a level playing field on environment and climate, and CBAM can contribute to this.
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Upper Drina hydropower scheme would turn 30 kilometres of this iconic river into stagnant reservoirs and cut a key Danube Salmon habitat into pieces. Its largest dam would be the 118-megawatt Buk Bijela, first proposed in the 1970s but repeatedly scuppered due to its impact on Montenegro’s Tara Canyon. Now a new environmental assessment is out for public consultation, but it’s being more than economical with the truth.
The European Commission launched the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans in 2020. But five years later, progress is limited. In mid-October, an updated Action Plan was endorsed by Western Balkan leaders. Here we look at whether civil society proposals were taken into account and whether the revised plan can inject new dynamism into the process.
