KfW signs EUR 18.5 million financing agreement with Raiffeisen to fund energy efficiency projects

German development bank KfW has signed a EUR 18.5 million financing agreement with Raiffeisen Bank in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in a continuation of long-standing cooperation on funding projects to improve energy efficiency, according to a press release from KfW. “It is my pleasure to sign this agreement and thereby continue our successful cooperation with […]

Regulatory framework, electricity price highlighted as impediments to greening region’s energy mix

The Western Balkans, and Serbia in particular, should continue implementing regulations to help green the energy mix and fight climate change, according to panelists at the 11th Balkan Energy Finance Forum. They also raised the issues of how the low regulated electricity price is affecting investments in the energy sector overall and how third countries […]

Renewables November 30, 2018

Ministry drafts law to prohibit small hydropower plant construction in protected areas

The Ministry of Environmental Protection has drafted a law banning the construction of small hydropower plants (SHPPs) in protected areas, State Secretary Ivan Karić has told Reuters, adding that the draft will be sent to the government and parliament in early 2019. “If this extreme non-ecological trend of diverting streams into pipelines continues, we would […]

Energy Community Ministerial Council sets direction for adopting 2030 energy and climate targets

Energy Community Ministerial Council, held today in Skopje, took some key decisions, including the adoption of  General Policy Guidelines on 2030 energy and climate targets, the selection of 21 infrastructure projects of regional significance, and re-opening of the negotiations on amendments to the Treaty establishing the Energy Community. The meeting, which brought together ministers of […]

2nd South-East Europe Parliamentary Forum on Energy Efficiency and Climate held in Skopje

After the success of the 1st South-East Europe Parliamentary Forum on Energy Efficiency (EE) and Climate, held in December 2017 in the Energy Community in Vienna, the GIZ Open Regional Fund for South-East Europe – Energy Efficiency (ORF-EE) organized another on 27 November, 2018 in Skopje, Macedonia. The event hosted representatives of parliaments and civil […]