EU Must Act to Stop Coal Power Ecocide in Western Balkans
Coal power in the Western Balkans is threatening farmers' livelihoods, damaging homes and devastating livelihoods. The European Union must make funding to the region conditional on protection of the environment and human rights.
The Western Balkans has some of Europe’s highest air pollution levels. Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina source most of their energy from fossil fuels, especially domestically produced coal, with little regard for its impact on local communities.
Most of the coal power plants were constructed during the Yugoslavia era, but a recent expansion of this polluting energy source has been funded by controversial Chinese-backed investments, often without environmental impact assessments and despite China’s commitment to cease funding coal power.
Local communities have fought for years to be re-located or fairly compensated for the impact of pollution and land erosion from mines and power stations. They have lost their land and livelihoods, seen their houses crumble around them and their health deteriorate due to coal-related diseases..
In a new briefing paper for EU institutions, EU must act to stop coal power ecocide in Western Balkans, FIAN International and local civil society groups highlight the harm inflicted by coal power and call for justice for the affected communities, including resettlement, compensation and the implementation of the EU's Green Agenda for the Western Balkans.
Read the briefing paper here.
