A Serbian couple stands in front of their home, which sits only 40 metres from the open field of the coal mine. Without running water or a telephone line, and both on medications, they have been waiting three years to resettle. Their house is the only one left in the neighbourhood.

Railroad tracks in Serbia. Serbia is a middle-income country and one of only a handful of European states that remain on the OECD list of countries eligible for official development assistance, or aid. With unemployment at 27% and rising daily, job creation is an urgent priority.

Kolubara mine workers cleaning the road. Despite growing distrust of the EPS and ongoing health problems in the community, the majority of Vreoci citizens depend on the Kolubara mining and power plants for employment.

The Serbian energy sector is presently in disastrous financial shape. With widespread poverty, a struggling industrial sector, lack of energy efficiency measure, and claims of poor management, the EPS is currently unable to recover their costs of electricity supply.

This is the last gravestone left from what used to be a cemetery in Vreoci. The Electric Power Industry of Serbia conducted exhumation of the local cemetery to make way for coal extraction at the nearby Kolubara mine without the consent of the villagers. Vreoci cemetery lies on an estimated 50 million tonnes of lignite coal and its exhumation was a precondition for digging an additional 600 million tonnes of lignite lying under the Vreoci municipality.

With its headquarters in London, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is an international financial institution owned by 64 (mostly European) countries. Its mandate is to promote private sector development and open market economies.

These are the remains of a demolished house in Vreoci. The Electric Power Industry of Serbia (EPS) has delayed relocation of the villagers. Some houses have been removed and the families’ resettled, while other families remain without running water or telephone lines, waiting indefinitely.

A coal excavator in the open mine field in Vreoci. The EBRD’s recently financed project, Environmental Improvement to the Kolubara Plant, justifies its success by reducing 200,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. However, the coal reserve intended for use in the coming years at the Kolubara Plant represents 500 million tonnes of CO2 that will be released into the atmosphere, dwarfing the environmental improvements.

Simic in front of his house in Radljevo, which is damaged by tremors from the nearby mining activities. Tremors and heavy noise are every day occurrences in the villages around the Kolubara mining complex.

Coal fires in the open mine in Vreoci. This phenomenon called “spontaneous combustion” is an oxidation reaction that occurs naturally. Coal fires are highly hazardous to the health of the communities around the mine and emit a range of gases, including toxic substances, carcinogens and heavy metals.