ALERT!
January 24, 2005

For more info, contact:
Michael Mariotte, NIRS 301-270-6477 12

Dear Friends:

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development provides financial help to countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, including funding for nuclear and other energy projects. The EBRD is now reviewing its policy on energy funding and has asked for public comment. The BankWatch Network has drafted comments stressing energy efficiency, renewable energy and an end to all nuclear power funding, and is seeking sign-ons. NIRS strongly supports these comments. The United States is the largest financial partner of EBRD (with your tax dollars!), so support from US organizations is important.

Below is the cover page of the BankWatch comments. To avoid clogging your inboxes, we have not sent the full text, which elaborates on the points below. If you'd like to see the full text, contact me at nirsnet@nirs.org and I will send them to you.

To sign on, please send your name, organization, city, state and country to Yury Urbansky at BankWatch Network: urbik@bankwatch.org by Thursday, January 27, 2005. Thanks for your help!

Michael Mariotte Nuclear Information and Resource Service

NGOs' vision of the new EBRD Energy Policy (2005) "Simply put, energy efficiency must go up and greenhouse gas emissions must go down in the countries east of the EU."

Jean Lemierre, EBRD President, International Herald Tribune, Dec 12, 2003

Overall goal The overall long-term goal of the EBRD Energy Policy should be to promote and bring about a transition of the energy sector in Eastern Europe and Central Asia from the current dependency on fossil fuels and nuclear energy towards more sustainable energy sources. In the process of achieving this goal the EBRD should put the emphasis on ensuring socially equitable, poverty reduction-driven energy and natural resource development.

The Revised Energy Policy Should:

· Conduct a Strategic Environmental Assessment of the draft Energy Policy.

· An assessment of the success in implementing the previous policies is needed.

· Increase emphasise on energy efficiency and set up gradually increasing targets for investments into energy efficiency requiring 50% of investment in the power sector to be for energy efficiency by 2008.

· Set targets for the financing of sustainable renewable energy.

· Projects that include Waste to Energy Plants or the use of Refuse Derived Fuel should not be eligible for financing.

· Over the next 5 years the EBRD should phase out investments in fossil fuel

· Transition impacts' monitoring must be based on a set of clear indicators and should include social impacts.

· Involve only projects where the Production Sharing, Host Country and other similar agreements are able to demonstrate that national, regional and local benefits live up to best international practice.

· Include a set of requirements in order to ensure proper revenue and contract transparency in extractive industry projects.

· Ensure that there is an open and public planning process to distribute revenues in any extractive industry projects fairly

· All extractive industries projects should ensure that emergency response plans are in place from the outset of a project,

· Financed projects should support only the use of safe, modern, and well-run vessels to carry oil, LNG or hazardous cargoes.

· Should not finance any oil, gas, or mining projects or activities (including technical assistance) that might affect existing World Heritage properties, current official protected areas, or critical natural habitat (as defined by the World Bank Natural Habitat Policy) or areas planned in the future to be designated by national or local officials as protected.

· All Joint Implementation (JI) and Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects must fulfil the Gold Standard.

· Based on the accounting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by funded projects, EBRD activity in the energy sector should bring about a decrease in GHG emissions.

· Not support any projects that are aimed at the construction, completion or upgrading of nuclear power stations.

· Adopt clear guidelines and require, as a condition of financing, that there is provision for sufficient funds to be built up in the balance sheet for closure from the start of any new development,

· The Bank's operations in the energy sector have to be scrutinised in order to exclude those projects which promote different forms of "perverse subsidies" in the energy sector and/or support the replacement of state owned monopolies by private or public-private ones.

· Include provisions to effectively mitigate the possible negative institutional, social and environmental impacts of energy privatisation actively promoted by the EBRD.

· Project financed by Financial Intermediaries must be required to comply with national and international standards, equal to projects directly funded by the EBRD.

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