FoE Russia: Ten Reasons Why Climate Initiatives Should Not Include Large Hydropower Projects
26 November, 2015
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26 November, 2015
Friends of the Earth Russia (RSEU)
Large hydropower projects are often propagated as a “clean and green” source of electricity by international financial institutions, national governments and other actors. They greatly benefit from instruments meant to address climate change, including carbon credits under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), credits from the World Bank’s Climate Investment Funds, and special financial terms from export credit agencies and green bonds. The dam industry advocates for large hydropower projects to be funded by the Green Climate Fund, and many governments boost them as a response to climate change through national initiatives. For example, at least twelve governments with major hydropower sectors have included an expansion of hydropower generation in their reports on Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs).
Support from climate initiatives is one of the reasons why more than 3,700 hydropower dams are currently under construction and in the pipeline. Yet large hydropower projects are a false solution to climate change. They should be kept out from national and international climate initiatives for the following reasons:
For these reasons, The Russian Social-Ecological Union and many its member organizations have joined an appeal to delegations to the UN Climate conference in Paris, calling on governments, financiers and other institutions to keep large hydropower projects out of their initiatives to address climate change. Outside climate initiatives, such projects should only go forward under a full assessment of all options as well as strict social and environmental conditions such as those recommended by the World Commission on Dams.
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