While one of the principles of the bank is to promote sustainable development, the institution will spend millions of Euros to promote the coal industry, among other things.

Civil society organizations such as Bankwatch and the environmentalist federation Zelena Akcija, member of Friends of the Earth International, protested outside the venue of the meeting and demanded the bank to invest in renewable energy. These organizations consider that investing in coal as an energy source does not contribute to sustainable development and is an obstacle for the possible efforts of the bank to achieve clean energy.

“We wanted to show the public and the bank that such development is not sustainable and that such development is not acceptable, if we want to turn Europe into a low-carbon society”, said Marijan Galovic to Real World Radio. Galovic is coordinator of Financial Institutions Monitoring at Zelena Akcija.

Galovic also made reference to a series of proposals by the civil society to prevent funds asked by the bank to rich countries from being spent in environmentally unsustainable projects.

Video: www.bankwatch.org
Photo: http://bankwatch.org