1/ Europe’s nature is in crisis.

The EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 promised to put nature on the road to recovery. But halfway through, it’s clear: we’re off track.

❌ No increase in protected land and sea areas since 2021
1/2

From 1 January 2026 – in just two months’ time – the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will take full effect.

Will it help drive a sustainable and just energy transition in the Western Balkans, or result in a perfect storm?

Find out more: bankwatch.org/wp-content/u...

An image depicting a red carpet leading to grey, old power plant with a shiny neon sign on it 'Hydrogen ready'. At the bottom of the image, a text reads: No fossil gas hydrogen can be a Project of Common Interest.

🚨Hydrogen-hype klaxon!
Dozens of fossil gas-based hydrogen projects could soon receive EU priority status, threatening to derail Europe’s energy transition.
Read a new open letter from 34 civil society groups on the next Projects of Common Interest list: bankwatch.org/publication/...

As the Berlin Process Leaders’ Summit begins in London, 67 CSOs have shared feedback about the 2025 process.
Time to move beyond symbolic participation and strengthen civil society’s role.
How? 📖 bankwatch.org/wp-content/u...

The Buk Bijela dam on the upper Drina raises major environmental, legal & financial red flags. Closed bids from Chinese firms and a flawed EIA put the river’s future at risk. It’s a risky project putting profits over nature.
📢 Stop Buk Bijela! bankwatch.org/stopbu...

Romania’s Parliament paves the way for environmental destruction and ‘foreign agent’ repression - Bankwatch Romania stands at a dangerous crossroads. Last week, a law initiated by the senator Daniel Zamfir in 2022 and already then rejected by the Senate, passed by a crushing majority (262–33) in the decisiv...

Ugly developments in Romania... the @ec.europa.eu needs to act quickly on this.

bankwatch.org/blog/romania...

World’s oceans losing their greenness through global heating, study finds Researchers say decline in phytoplankton suggests weakened planetary capacity to absorb carbon dioxide

Researchers say decline in phytoplankton suggests weakened planetary capacity to absorb carbon dioxide 👇

#ClimateChange

🚫 #StopBukBijela – protect the Drina & Piva rivers! Despite legal challenges, Republika Srpska is pushing ahead with the Buk Bijela dam, Montenegro – with Kruševo. No dams on the upper Drina! 🔗 bankwatch.org/stopbukbijela

Footage: Ante Gugić, moremedia.hr, Robert Oroz

In July, the European Commission published a proposal for a new post 2027 EU budget.

🚨 Nature is left behind with no dedicated fund and no biodiversity targets.

🔍 Read more about gaps in the next EU budget: bankwatch.org/publication/...

1/2 The revised Green Agenda Action Plan is expected to be adopted or endorsed at the Dubrovnik Summit this week, on 14 to 15 October.

But in spite of repeated promises, no public consultation has been held on the Plan.

1/🌿 The Emerald Network is a vital ecological network of protected areas across Europe – helping to safeguard threatened species and natural habitats.

🚫 Stop Buk Bijela! One of 14 dams planned on the Drina, it threatens the Danube salmon 🐟 and rafting tourism 🚣‍♂️. Despite legal violations, the project is moving ahead with a flawed environmental assessment. No dams on the upper Drina!

🔗 bankwatch.org/stopbu...

There is no place like home. Yet too many of them are vacant.

It’s not only a housing crisis, it’s also a vacant homes crisis.” The graphic shows bar charts comparing the national percentage of vacant homes (yellow bars) and the percentage of vacant homes in capital cities (dark green bars) across several European countries. The countries shown are the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain. A line marks 50% on the y-axis. Source: Housing Europe Observatory, 2023. Note: Data from countries with available comparable data.

🏡 On this first ever #WorldVacantHomesDay, we highlight one of the biggest contradictions of our time: too many homes without people, too many people without homes.

🇪🇺 EU countries must prioritise renovating & reallocating vacant houses for social housing.

Ursula von der Leyen: Queen in the Commission, Servant in the Council A year into her second term, the European Commission’s notoriously controlling president is attracting criticism for neutering her college of commissioners while blindly following the EU’s 27 national...

"Von der Leyen has become the face of EU surrender, of a union powerless in the face of ever-growing global threats. It is an ironic position to be in for someone so obsessed with amassing power within the institution she controls"

My IPQ profile of VDL: ip-quarterly.com/en/ursula-vo...

Why are Western Balkans ignoring renewables and locking themselves into gas? The Western Balkans are being nudged from one fossil-fuel trap (coal) into another (gas). Why?

🔋 The Western Balkans have a rare chance to leapfrog fossil gas and build a clean energy system.

🔥 Yet EUR 3.5 billion in gas infrastructure is still being planned, which would lock the region into decades of dependence, pollution and financial risk.
Read more: euobserver.com/eu-and-the-w...

🚨Western Balkans govts are pushing fossil gas pipelines with an annual import capacity of 10.5 billion cubic metres. These could triple their dependence — or end up as stranded assets.
Our new report with @ceebankwatch.bsky.social explains why gas is a dead end.
beyondfossilfuels.org/2025/09/25/d...

Check out our opinion piece in the EUObserver today:

🤔 Why are the #WesternBalkans locking themselves into fossil gas dependence when they could leapfrog straight to renewable energy?

Check out our new briefing on gas plans in the #WesternBalkans.

Governments are fossil-fooling people that gas is the fuel of the future, but this couldn't be further from the truth.

The EU and other international donors need to send clearer messages: no new fossil fuels, cut to a clean future!

Transport works best when institutions & civil society join forces ✅

In Brussels, CSOs from the #WesternBalkans & EU pitched solutions to make transport more transparent, sustainable & inclusive 🎯

Learn more about our and Open Society Western Balkans's event 👇
tinyurl.com/mmx448db

🧵 1/4

🔬💧 Over 600 scientists from across Europe have signed a joint statement calling on the EU to urgently update its water pollution rules.

📢 Freshwater ecosystems are collapsing - and outdated policies aren't keeping up.

Full statement ➡️ www.fba.org.uk/fba-voice/sc...

#HandsOffNature

Car tyres shed a quarter of all microplastics in the environment – urgent action is needed Tiny flakes of plastic, generated by the wear and tear of normal driving, eventually accumulate in the soil, in rivers and lakes, and even in our food.

Every year, billions of vehicles worldwide shed an estimated 6 million tonnes of tire fragments. These tiny flakes of plastic, generated by normal driving, account for 28% of microplastics entering the environment globally.

Heavy vehicles eg SUVs/EVs especially.

Via @us.theconversation.com

Pozivaju Vladu da obustavi potpisivanje Memoranduma sa japanskom kompanijom o gasnoj elektrani i LNG terminalu Projekat ne samo da nema konsenzus zajednice, već predstavlja opasnost po bezbjednost, životnu sredinu i javno zdravlje, piše u otvorenom pismu Vladi Crne Gore, ...

Montenegro's 🇲🇪 government has once again taken leave of its senses and plans to sign a memorandum with a Japanese company tomorrow for an LNG terminal and power plant(s).

40 NGOs and individuals managed to react within 24 hours, demanding a rethink.

www.vijesti.me/vijesti/ekon...

Folding bike on a train platform

You can actually take trains across the Balkans?? Let's find out how

Classical train hall entrance

People on platform

Departure board showing a train to Ljubljana at 10:34

It's a beautiful morning in Zagreb! Welcome to the inaugural run on Slovenske železnice's new service from Ljubljana to Zagreb!

Don’t let the EU tear down nature protection ❌

The European Commission is quietly trying to dismantle the laws that safeguard what we cherish most: our nature.

They think we wouldn’t notice or care. But we do.

Tell them to keep their #HandsOffNature 👉 handsoffnature.eu

❓What has the European Commission’s EUR 1 billion Energy Support Package for the Western Balkans achieved?
❗We tried to find out, but could only trace EUR 163 million in worthwhile spending.

Read our new report: bankwatch.org/publication/...

#GAWBNavigator
#GreenAgendaNavigator

For sure this mostly affects older people, but not only. More and more services assume people have smartphones. I don't have one and I don't want one.

At first this was my usual techno laggardry, but over time I've become convinced that it's crucial for me to maintain focus and avoid burnout.

⚠️The European Commission's new Roadmap towards Nature Credits was published earlier this week.

Yet biodiversity credits may be in danger of being a massive distraction from other more effective strategies to improve the state of nature.

REVEALED: Hydrogen industry’s la-la land was awarded almost half a billion euro in EU subsidies in 2024, our latest analysis reveals.

Fossil energy giants like Shell and Equinor are among the beneficiaries of a little acknowledged EU infrastructure fund.

See here: bankwatch.org/publication/...

⚠️The @ec.europa.eu's new Roadmap towards Nature Credits is out today.

But would such credits help mobilise financing for nature, or distract from simpler and better solutions❓

Read our take in our new briefing: bankwatch.org/publication/...