From a grassroots to the international level …
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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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.
Read morePublications
ECAs go to market
Study | 5 February, 2018 | Download PDFBetween 2015 and 2017, Finance & Trade Watch and Bankwatch, together with its national partners researched export credit agencies (ECAs) in seven countries of the European Union (Austria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovak …
Smoke and mirrors: why the climate promises of the Southern Gas Corridor don’t add up
Study | 30 January, 2018 | Download PDFThe aim of this study is to quantify the fugitive emissions produced along the fossil gas supply chain of the Southern Gas Corridor, focusing on extraction and transmission operations.
AIIB financial intermediaries
Official document | 19 January, 2018 | Download PDFIn 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 …
Comments on the Nenskra supplementary environmental and social studies
Policy comments | 15 January, 2018 | Download PDFThe revised supplementary studies for the Nenskra project fail to properly perform a cost/benefit analysis. It lacks an assessment of the energy efficiency alternatives , the environmental externalities , the opportunity costs and even an economic inte …
Doomed to coal
Study | 4 January, 2018 | Download PDFThis study, prepared by the Kazakh Center for the New Environmentally Friendly Technologies (CINEST) provides an overview of the state and prospects for the development of coal-mining and energy-generating industries in Kazakhstan, in the context of th …
Broken rivers. The impacts of European-financed small hydropower plants on pristine Balkan landscapes
Study | 19 December, 2017 | Download PDFEight hydropower projects in Albania, Croatia and Macedonia financed with European public money have damaged biodiversity and are in urgent need of increased monitoring and restoration measures.
Review of the coal sector in Tajikistan
Study | 18 December, 2017 | Download PDFThis study provides a detailed assessment of the state of affairs in Tajikistan’s coal sector and in the development of solutions for environmental protection.
Gas lending at the European Investment Bank 2013-2016
Briefing | 12 December, 2017 | Download PDFSince the European Investment Bank (EIB) revised its energy lending criteria in 2012, it has limited its support for fossil fuels projects in the energy sector and eliminated the most polluting power plants from its portfolio. However, the bank’s contr …
The weakest link – the EBRD’s energy lending 2010-2016
Briefing | 11 December, 2017 | Download PDFDespite commitments to help address the climate crisis, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development awarded fossil fuel projects EUR 4.05 billion between 2010 and 2016 – more than double its support for renewable energy during the same period.
Ecological integrity assessment of four rivers in Macedonia affected by derivation hydropower schemes based on aquatic macroinvertebrates
Study | 7 December, 2017 | Download PDFThis study provides an ecological integrity assessment of four rivers in Macedonia affected by small hydropower plants which are perceived as low-impact but can have significant detrimental effects on river ecosystems. The selected plants are financed by international development banks such as the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
