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We investigate the impacts of public finance, work with affected communities and local organisations across the world and help them protect their rights and livelihoods. We make sure their stories are being told in Europe’s power centers.
We regularly meet representatives of the institutions we monitor and we’re in Brussels, too, doing our bit to make Europe a fairer, cleaner and sustainable place.
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We expose the risks of international public finance and bring critical updates from the ground.
We believe that the billions of public money should work for people and the environment.
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LATEST UPDATE
Rovinari unit 7, Romania
The Romanian Government has been negotiating for several years with the Chinese Government to build a new 600 MW unit at the lignite power plant in Rovinari, Gorj County. The new unit would be built on the site of Units 1 and 2, currently decommissioned. A new up and running plant would pollute the whole region for at least 40 more years, a coal plant’s average lifespan.
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Gacko II, Bosnia and Herzegovina
State-owned utility Elektroprivreda Republike Srpske, together with China Machinery and Engineering Corporation (CMEC) and Emerging Markets Power Fund, plans to build a new 350 MW lignite power plant in Gacko, near the town’s existing plant, and in December 2017 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed to move the project forward.
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Kamengrad lignite power plant, Bosnia-Herzegovina
An idea to build a power plant at the open-cast Kamengrad coal mine near Sanski Most in the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina has been around for years, but in 2017 it took a step forward with the November signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Energy China International and the Bosnia-Herzegovina construction supplier Lager d.o.o. for a 2 X 215 MW plant.
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Belgrade waste public-private partnership (PPP)
Briefing | 19 June, 2018 | Download PDFThe Vinča waste PPP contract between the City of Belgrade and the Suez-Itochu consortium raises numerous issues including the terms of the contract, the waste management model envisaged, and the impacts on the Roma population living on the landfill, as …
MHP corporate support and biogas loans – an update from the field
Briefing | 19 June, 2018 | Download PDFWith over half a billion euros from the EBRD and the IFC, the leading Ukrainian agribusiness giant has grown into a near monopolist in poultry production. The company’s poor track record of stakeholder engagement and accountability towards impacted vi …
Submission to the EBRD strategy for Uzbekistan
Briefing | 19 June, 2018 | Download PDFIt is important that the EBRD clearly indicates to the Uzbekistan government the need to have progress towards meeting those benchmarks from over 15 years ago that remain relevant to this day. We suggest that the Country Strategy will envisage an early …
New Kosovo power plant – an expensive and outdated anomaly in a decarbonising world
Briefing | 19 June, 2018 | Download PDFAfter years of delay, the New Kosovo lignite power plant took a step forward in 2017 with the signing of commercial contracts. However, numerous old issues, including carbon emissions, resettlement, and the dubious single-bidder procurement process, ha …
How can the EBRD maximise its leverage to bring about decarbonisation?
Briefing | 19 June, 2018 | Download PDFThe economic viability of coal is ever decreasing. Without public financial support many coal investments are doomed to fail. Yet several institutions are still willing to finance an energy source that wrecks our climate, damages our health and wastes …
Low-carbon transition as it should be: three steps for the EBRD to have fewer headaches with hydropower projects
Briefing | 19 June, 2018 | Download PDFThe use of third-party financial intermediaries by the public banks presents a huge barrier to transparency, with next to no information available about their clients’ operations. This has proven especially problematic in the hydropower sector, where f …
Nenskra Hydro Project – Update
Briefing | 19 June, 2018 | Download PDFThe banks have a responsibility to ensure that when they make an investment, they mitigate and avoid situations that put persons at risk. The Nenskra dam in Georgia is one example where the lack of proper environmental and social assessment can potenti …
EPS restructuring loan
Briefing | 19 June, 2018 | Download PDFDespite its commitments to increase the share of renewables under the Energy Community and reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the process of EU accession, the Serbian government seems determined to remain locked-in to a carbon intensive energy syst …
The cost of turning a blind eye: EIB lending to Israel’s ICL
Briefing | 18 June, 2018 | Download PDFThe toxic wastewater spill from the Rotem Amfert plant that caused a severe environmental disaster in Ashalim Stream, Israel, in late June 2017 joins a long list of pollution events the company has been responsible for through the years. In fact, even …
The European Commission’s platform for coal regions in transition: case studies highlight tilt toward coal companies
Briefing | 5 June, 2018 | Download PDFWithout adhering to the partnership principle, the Platform for Coal Regions in Transition risks benefiting coal companies at the expense of local communities, in blatant contradiction to its stated goal. In Poland and Slovakia, lack of transparency an …
