Lake Baikal shore in winter (RwB)

December 3. Moscow. Mongolia and Russia have finally signed an agreement on cooperation in electric power, development of which was triggered by Mongolia’s plans to build hydropower plants in Lake Baikal basin to achieve self-sufficiency in energy sector. On the part of Mongolia, such desire was partly due to lack of long-term agreement with neighbors for reliable electricity supply at affordable price.

The necessity for such agreement has been discussed at least since 2014 and was always viewed in conjunction with difficult negotiations on …

Small Hydro, supported by the International Finance Corporation, blocking Langarica River in a national park in Albania . by Cornelia Wieser

As You, probably, know the main factor preventing rivers in EU to achieve “good ecological status” prescribed by the Water Framework Directive is “hydro-morphological alteration”, in other words – dams, dykes and other water infrastructure. One would expect, that policies of EU countries would be directed at removing and reducing this threat. Reality is shocking:

Europe’s rivers are damned by dams: Plans are drawn …

A long exposure view of Karnali River below Shreenagar village of Humla. by Nabin Baral, Karnali Expedition

The Karnali River is the gateway to the Kailash Mandala region from the Ganges River. It provides a sacred corridor once travelled by Shiva and his wife Parvati on his way to his home in Mt. Kailash. Today, the river corridor is travelled by tens of thousands of pilgrims annually. Of the three major rivers emerging from the Nepal Himalaya—the Koshi, the Gandaki, and the Karnali—the Karnali is the only …

The common understanding that hydropower is not a “climate savior” was recently supported by another solid study in a leading scientific journal.

The Environmental Defense Fund has
published a study in Environmental
Science and Technology that it says shows that hydropower “is not
always as good for the climate as broadly assumed.”

EDF said
it assessed the warming impacts over time of sustained greenhouse gas emissions
estimated from nearly 1,500 hydropower plants around the globe and looked at
the implications of future hydropower development.

EDF stated: “If minimizing climate
impacts are not a priority in the design, construction and …

Recently
the RwB contributed to development of a guidance
document on taking water into account when developing climate mitigation
and adaptation measures. Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA) issued the
first public version of this living document on November 15.

By crowdsourcing with national, sectoral, and civil society
partners, AGWA has synthesized a short set of recommendations to guide
countries in the choices they make in recognizing the water embedded across
sectors and climate targets. The report provides guiding principles and
recommendations for national climate planners and decision-makers to help them
ensure that they meet their goals within their national …

Following the submission of a complaint to the New South Wales Senate Inquiry on the Warragamba Dam, as a responsible signatory I decided to visit the dam itself. Of course, our own submission dealt with environmentally damaging projects undertaken by SMEC overseas, but looking at legendary Warragamba Dam would give me better understanding of domestic Australian context of its new project.

140-meter Dam as it is now is almost free of active public controversy, all questions are about a proposal to raise it by 14-17 meters to …