Blogs

What is a perceived source of security for some can cause instability for others’ lives.

Two reports by the Serbian Center for Investigative Journalism take stock of the problems surrounding the planned Kostolac B3 lignite power plant, including a recent court decision that cancelled the project's Environmental Impact Assessment.

Just as everyone else was going on holiday, on Friday night the Montenegrin parliament approved two decisions laying the ground for the controversial Pljevlja II lignite power plant. But a look at the project documentation released by the government shows that the project’s economics only add up with some giant leaps of faith.

In a letter to the President of the European Investment Bank from July 22, the European Union's Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly has asked the bank to review its governance arrangements to help prevent potential conflicts of interest in the bank’s governing bodies.

For more than 50 years, the lignite mines in Serbia's Kolubara basin have been expanding, effectively engulfing the few small communities living between them. For local residents, whose homes have quite literally been teetering on the brink of the mines, life has become unbearable. But a recent court ruling might be paving the way to a long overdue reprieve for residents who have been promised to be relocated.

As rains cause mudflows in Georgia's mountains, locals from different regions unite to protest hydropower developments in geologically unstable areas.

With hydropower and mining projects encroaching on their lands and livelihoods, Svan communities in Georgia’s northwest consider convening in an ancestral assembly to discuss their course of action.

The possible cancellation of the Serbian government’s decision to construct a new 350 MW unit at the Kostolac B lignite power plant was discussed on June 23 at the national administrative court of Serbia.

On June 23 mudflows from the Devdoraki glacier again hit the Dariali gorge and washed away a road and infrastructure connected to two hydropower projects planned in the north of Georgia. The destruction included the water intake for the 19 megawatt Larsi hydropower plant and the derivation pipes for the Dariali hydropower plant.

Czech environmental and law groups have proposed a law amendment to revive the disadvantaged renewable energy sector in their country. Karel Polanecky from Bankwatch member group Hnuti Duha explains their initiative.