Category: <span>Essential Publications</span>

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 …

International Energy Agency: “Hydropower is particularly sensitive to the cost of capital”

Hydropower issues in the IEA report on “Reducing Cost of Capital” The International Energy Agency issued an interesting report on reducing the cost of capital for “clean energy”, including hydropower. The Rivers without Boundaries considers it a timely publication in the era of rising interest rates, and is happy to …

Hydropower stepped down as the global renewable power champion

A year earlier than it was previously forecasted to happen the installed capacity of solar power plants reached 37% of all global renewable energy, which left hydropower behind with 33%. Renewable Capacity Statistics 2024 released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) shows that 2023 set a new record in …