Dedicated to the 2021 World Hydropower Congress, this Brief provides a review of hydropower development in 2020 and rich statistics on hydropower in the 21 century. It notes a modest role of hydropower in renewable energy (RE) revolution, global decline in annual hydropower expansion for the last 7 years. Section contains a brief account of relative advantages and disadvantages of hydropower as a part of “sustainable development”. It further assesses national policy environment for current hydropower development in dam-developing countries, exploring violations of internationally recognized ESG standards and safeguards. The …

A Cannibal Tasked with Writing “Responsible Eating Guidelines” Faces Natural Difficulties…

It has been almost two weeks since the International Hydropower Association (IHA) announced its “historic commitment” not to build dams inside the World Heritage areas. It became about the last in the long line of industries who have been convinced by the World Heritage Center to declare such a commitment. In the explanatory FAQ document the IHA even says that when creating dams in the same basins but outside World Heritage “the focus should be on avoiding and …

Bloomberg  

Remove dams in the Giant Salamander Reserve (poster)

As President Xi Jinping calls for greater environmental protection, officials are eager to demolish badly-planned dams. But the country will need vast amounts of clean hydroelectric power to meet its net-zero goal.

China is trying to wean its massive economy off coal and fossil fuels to meet its ambitious goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2060. So why is it trying to shut down as many as 40,000 hydropower plants?

Yebatan Hydro Construction on Jinsha (Upper Yangtze) River. 2018

The answer lies deep in the …

Chinese Engineers at Turgusun Dam. Xinhua July 2021

According to Xinhua agency the
China-built Turgusun hydropower plant has been operating at full capacity since
mid-July and will help ease a power shortage in East Kazakhstan Region. The
plant is located on the Turgusun River near the city of Altai.
Built by the China International Water and Electric Corporation (CWE), a
subsidiary of the China
Three Gorges Corporation, the station has an installed capacity of 24.9 MW,
and is expected to produce up to 79.8 million kilowatt hours of electricity per
year.

Celebration of successful launch of the third generator. …

Zun Torey Lake (now inside Daursky Zapovednik core zone) . by Bart Wickel

State Strict Scientific Nature Reserve (Zapovednik) Daursky has been expanded by Governmental Decree #1301 issued on August 4, 2021.

The area of the strictly protect area has been expanded from 45 000 hectares to 84 000 ha (more than by 80%) by adding 11 new adjacent land plots in grassland and wetland ecosystems in Ononsky and Borzinsky districts of Zabaikalsky Province (Kray).

Maps of Daursky SSNR and adjacent protected areas.Left: Red- old strictly protected zones (45000 ha), Yellow – …

Dams threatening Lake Baikal and five other iconic areas are featured in a new report by Friends of the Earth US “World Heritage Forever? How Banks Can Protect the World’s Most Iconic Cultural and Natural Sites”.

Baikal Seal

The report is examining how the international banking sector lacks strong policies and practices to protect World Heritage and other internationally recognized sites. Drawing on six case studies, the report calls on financial institutions to adopt the Banks and Biodiversity No Go policy, which …