Blogs

The announcement of German energy giant RWE to reconsider its plans for the Nabucco pipeline is just the last in a series of confusingly conflicting signals regarding the fate of this gargantuan project.

As pressures mount on western European banks to shore up capital ratios and with 2012 economic growth forecasts for Europe falling close to zero, officials from the European Central Bank, the European Commission, and several international financial institutions (IFIs) are meeting today in Vienna with regulators from CEE countries to discuss a second round of financial support for a fragile CEE banking sector.

Baffled by an EIB loan to a holiday resort in Morocco, our friends from Counter Balance - Challenging the European Investment Bank had a closer look at the kind of development promoted there and came back with this wonderfully illustrative video.

On December 13, the EIB's Board of Directors is about to approve the institution’s new Transport Policy. This new document constitutes an upgrade of the older 2007 Transport Policy of the bank which tries to incorporate the EU’s progressive agenda on the prevention of climate change (documents such as the "Europe 2020 Strategy" and the "Roadmap for moving to a competitive low-carbon economy in 2050").

While the potential of green investments is undeniable, statements from EU decision makers don’t paint the rosiest picture for a climate friendly Cohesion Policy 2014-2020.

A study from the Czech Republic vividly confirms the positive economic impact of public support schemes for energy efficiency investments. The future Cohesion Policy can offer valuable stimuli for such schemes – if EU Member States set the right priorities now.

By allowing open and inclusive consultations on the future Cohesion Policy, Latvia is not only devising its national position in a more democratic way than other EU Member States. It is also setting an example for actually getting people interested in it.

The Czech renewable energy industry last week received a strong blow from our very own Parliament which approved measures that will likely smother the sector in a bill ironically entitled the „Renewable energy sources support bill.”

With potentially devastating impacts on natural habitats, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has so far offered no real commitment to environmental protection in its ambiguous decisions on two hydropower plants in Croatia and Macedonia.

Today Bankwatch member group Zelena akcija/Friends of the Earth - Croatia held an action today outside the offices of the EBRD in Zagreb, calling on the bank not to approve a planned loan of up to EUR 123 million for the Ombla hydropower plant project. You can see some images from the demo here.