EBRD policy must take a stance: will it limit the ways in which stakeholders interact with each other and with the environment by adopting technical and procedural solutions? Or will it aim to promote shifts in social relations, in line with its mandate to promote sustainability and democratisation in its countries of operation? In this briefing, Bankwatch recommends a number of improvements in the EBRD's Environmental and Social Policy and its Public Information Policy to better reflect the needs of the public.

Published to coincide with the EBRD’s annual meeting 2013 being held in Istanbul, this issue examines a developing controversial project in the bank’s newest region: a refinery expansion project in Cairo. Other fossil fuel investments by the EBRD also feature in the newsletter - and as the bank goes into major ‘policy review’ mode, with revisions to its energy, environmental and social and public information policies in the pipeline for this year, we put forward the case for the EBRD to rise to the climate challenge with real action rather than words. As the bank’s newly signed Kosovo country strategy demonstrates, however, the bank isn't on course yet.

In recent years the EBRD has increased its funding for hydropower plants (HPPs) of all sizes. While small hydropower plants are seen by many as a far safer technology than large hydropower plants, they too can cause interruptions in river flows, loss of biodiversity and the degradation of habitats, disruptions for migrating fish and a lack of water for irrigation and drinking in downstream communities. The updated EBRD Environmental and Social Policy should include safeguards to ensure that small HPPs are truly sustainable.

The energy sector in Serbia is reminiscent of the industrial development strategy of the former socialist Yugoslavia, with thousands of megawatts of power plant capacities planned, and much of that production to be wasted, while people remain unable to afford their energy bills. The EBRD is set to fund this scenario with its support for a lignite-based, inefficient economy in Serbia. This briefing outlines arguments against financing the Kolubara B lignite power plant in Serbia.

In 2009 the EBRD established the EUR 50 million facility to support the development of small-scale projects in all renewable energy generation sectors, including hydro, wind, biomass and solar power. While the initiative is welcomed and timely, the first projects to be developed were not transparent practices in the project development, jeopardising the whole notion of renewable energy as sustainable and socially-acceptable.

The briefing outlines arguments against the 600 MW Kosovo e Re project that involved the construction of a new coal plant close to Prishtina. The project has been heavily promoted by the World Bank and by the US, and now also looks set for funding by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The bank's new draft Country Strategy for Kosovo, which was approved by the EBRD's Board of Directors on 1 May, clearly shows the bank's interest in the project.