Coal investments are a dying breed in many countries, but some investors are still ready to try their luck in southeast Europe and Turkey. For campaigners who want to communicate with these actors Bankwatch has developed the user-friendly online toolkit Kings of Coal in three languages.
The SOCAR Refinery project and its ‘secret’ coal power plant show the magnitude of the problems that the mixture of business interests, coal and neglect of local health concerns may cause in Turkey.
One year after a landslide destroyed thirteen houses the Kolubara mining company continues to dump waste in the same area without information from its investigations forthcoming. Locals fear that more landslides may occur. Bankwatch member group CEKOR has now increased pressure on the company and the EBRD.
At the end of May the whole of Europe will be going to the ballot box for the 2014 European Parliament elections. But when the votes are counted and members-to-be (MEPs) take their place, who are they going to represent – people or profit? The Bankwatch supported campaign Politics for people asks them to take a pledge against the latter.
On Thursday in Skopje, over 100 people attended the first public conference [mk] regarding the two planned hydropower plants in the Mavrovo National Park, one of the oldest and most valuable protected areas in the country. A petition to save the park that was launched one day earlier has already gathered over 13 000 signatures.
A highly problematic Danube dam project has found its way into the Slovak Operational Programme for the Cohesion Policy spending in the 2014-2020 period and has become a small scandal in the country.
When it comes to Kosovo's energy future, institution after institution has been putting most of its eggs in a 'new lignite' basket while some very reasonable alternative investment options seem to fall by the wayside.
Last weekend, the Georgian Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources again left no doubt about where its main interests lie: enforcing the massive exploitation of Georgia’s hydropower potential despite and against people’s concerns and if necessary by use of force.
Environmentalists and public finance watchdogs are taking to twitter today to urge World Bank president Dr. Jim Yong Kim to head his own rhetoric and reject the Kosovo coal power plant.
The Partnership Agreement (the main strategic document underpinning the new Cohesion Policy) is the place to state not only intentions but commitments, yet the latter are missing in Slovakia's EU funds blueprint for now.
English
Русский
