Rigorous environmental impact assessments conducted to international best practice standards need to be undertaken and made available for public scrutiny. Planned new investment in coal-fired power plants of around 6 GW across the region is inconsistent with commitments to meet EU carbon targets agreed by all the SEE economies under the Paris Agreement. Given the lifespan of coal-fired power plants, this raises the real prospect of new coal plants becoming stranded assets if their operation is prematurely curtailed by existing climate policy obligations.