News

On May the 3rd, 2012 an information meeting was held with non-governmental organizations and local governmental representatives in Batumi. The goal of the meeting was to inform stakeholders on current status of the project and also present the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) findings for their comments and inputs.

The meeting was opened by project director Bjorn Brandtzaeg who gave a short overview of the company Clean Energy Group, objectives and environmental policy, and benefits of the project.  Mr. Brandtzaeg expressed a wish for the non-governmental organizations to take an active part in the discussion, provide their views, comments and questions regarding the project.  Thomas Lubeck, IFC Manager for the South Caucasus, gave a brief overview of IFC ‘s involvement in the development of the project.

Vanessa Hovland from Mott MacDonald Ltd presented the main findings of the ESIA study, highlighting major impacts and proposed mitigation measures.

Anne-Tone Steinsvik from Clean Energy Group outlined the company’s commitment under the Environmental and Social Management Plan, both during the construction phase and operational phases of the project to implement the measures identified by the ESIA.  Participants from the NGO community were very positive to this plan and highlighted that it should be requirement for every investor.

Then, IFC senior environmental specialist Akira Tanabe gave a short presentation about IFCs involvement in the project, their expectations and environmental and social standards.

Clean Energy Group invited an independent expert Dr. Rezo Goradze, a researcher from the Black Sea Monitoring Agency, who discusses migration process of the Black Sea Salmon who presented his view regarding the importance of maintaining mobility between the Brown Trout and Black Sea Salmon fisheries populations by constructing fish passes on every dam.