The International Hydropower Association (IHA) published its 7th “Hydropower Status Report”. Report illustrates further decline of annually installed hydropower capacity, with “optimistic” estimate of only 15 GW added worldwide in 2019. We still tend to believe that the 12.5 GW figure from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is more accurate, because random check on the IHAs figures shows that to cheer-up report readership results for some countries were exaggerated: by 90 MW in Russia, by 250 MW in Ethiopia, and by 400 MW in Tajikistan, etc. However, our …

Chinese workers celebrate completion of a hydropower project in Uzbekistan. March 2020

Global Civil Society Call on Chinese Authorities to Ensure that COVID-19 Financial Relief is Not Targeted to Harmful Projects along the Belt and Road.

On April 29, 2020, the Rivers without Boundaries along with other 260 civil society groups across the world called on the Chinese government to ensure that COVID-19 related financial relief for struggling Belt and Road projects flows only to high quality investments satisfying specific criteria, and avoid bailing out projects already mired in environmental, social, biodiversity, …

Her Majesty’s Hydropower Construction at Cairngorms National Park (Image by ECOW. 2019)

The Daily Mail reported that the Queen has won over environmentalists an argument about developing 2MW hydropower scheme on River Muick in Scotland. The new hydro which affects natural ecosystems of Cairngorms National Park will supply the Balmoral royal estate and the expected net financial value of generation goes up to 650000 pounds a year. However, the 2020 report from IRENA on development of renewable energy proves that the Queen have chosen a failing unpopular technology, while many …

The Amur-Heilong River has a long history of environmental pollution, with the worst cases resulting from industrial accidents. People of China and Russia still vividly remember the great panic of 2005 when a chemical plant blasted in Jilin Province threatening by toxic spill Harbin and Habarovsk cities and dozens of smaller settlements downstream on Songhua and Amur rivers. That challenge spurred emergence of the modern environment policy of China as well as sped up development of Russian-Chinese cooperation on transboundary water bodies.

Ever since in China environmental
policies constantly improved and …

The construction site of the Jiasa River hydropower station near Jiasa Town, Yunnan province, FoN

Despite coronavirus fears and strict quarantine China had witnessed a landmark victory in public-interest litigation on environmental matters. We congratulate Friends of Nature (and our friends) with this remarkable achievement and wish them to win this case to the very end.

In July 2017, conservation groups Friends of Nature (自然之友), Shan Shui Conservation Centre and Wild China Film filed a lawsuit against the China Hydropower Engineering Consulting Group at the Kunming Intermediate People’s Court. Their …

An interdisciplinary group of researchers was assembled to identify ‘frontier horizon’ environmental and social issues for the BRI. One hundred issues were initially submitted and “rapid destruction of natural river ecosystems” came out as the most pressing issue of all (although it is not very novel). Chinese companies and financiers have major role in developing water infrastructure all over the globe.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) represents the largest infrastructure and development project in human history, and presents risks and opportunities for ecosystems, economies, and communities. Some risks …