Category: <span>Essential Publications</span>

Converting Lives into Kilowatts: Resettlement Plans for Rogun HPP Project Threaten Tens of Thousands of People

“Rogun Alert”, a coalition of concerned CSOs, has analyzed the Resettlement Action Plan and Livelihood Restoration Plan (RAP-2 and LRP-2) for the Rogun HPP construction project. In their analytical report CSOs have identified serious shortcomings in the documentation that could negatively affect tens of thousands of people. The project to …

The Oxymoron of “Sustainable Hydropower”: An Insider’s Perspective

A Critical Commentary on the “Global Horizon Scan of Emerging Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainable Hydropower” A recently published preprint, “Global Horizon Scan of Emerging Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainable Hydropower,” authored by Irene Boavida and 36 coauthors, offers a compelling look into the industry’s view of its own future. …

State of Renewables: Hydropower is a Harmful Outsider

This week the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) released a new Report Renewable Capacity Statistics 2025. Its contents are very predictable, almost boring: a new wave of unprecedented growth in renewable capacity installation in 2024. The 585 GW addition of RE last year holds a 92.5% share of the total …

How to interact with development banks lending to hydropower projects?

Bankwatch and Rivers without Boundaries have produced a Toolkit aimed primarily at civil society organizations working to challenge the construction of dams and other unsustainable water infrastructure. It focuses on Central Asia, a region where numerous highly problematic dam projects are still planned. As the region lacks an established culture …

Asian Development Bank exempts free flowing rivers from dam construction

Large rivers without dams and other water infrastructure will receive additional protection from hydropower development: thanks to the efforts of the international non-governmental organizations including our Coalition, Rivers without Boundaries, the Asian Development Bank has just included in its new Environmental and Social Framework (ESF) the “free-flowing rivers” as a …

Russian-language version of the UNESCO Guidance for Impact Assessments in a World Heritage Context Published in Kazakhstan

On June 11, 2024, Rivers without Boundaries and the UNESCO regional office for Central Asia in Almaty (Kazakhstan) received printed copies of the first edition of the Russian translation of the special Guidance for impact assessments in a World Heritage context. The publication was supported by the Critical Ecosystems Conservation …