Source: Susanna Williams, ENDS

The European Investment Bank (EIB) will announce a new climate strategy before the Paris climate conference, it said this week as it launched a consultation on how to improve climate-related lending.

Source: Ioana Ciuta, Political Critique

It is not easy to find anywhere in Europe as much determination as in Poland for building new coal. The only place to find a similar coal enthusiasm is at the door step of Europe, in the Balkans, looking set to be fuelled by Chinese money. But even there the future of coal is shaky.

Source: Andrew MacDowall, Financial Times

In the pale sunlight of an unseasonably warm December day, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic on Thursday cut the ribbon to open the Mihailo Pupin Bridge, spanning the Danube in west Belgrade.

Source: , bne

A Chinese agreement to finance a high-speed railway from Belgrade to Bucharest was one of around $10bn worth of investments, mainly in the energy and infrastructure sectors, signed during a China-Central and Eastern Europe summit this week. By funding the railway, Beijing hopes to establish a rapid connection from Greece’s Pireaus Port through the Balkans to the EU member states of Central Europe.