Category: <span>Essential Publications</span>

“Clean hydropower” can do more harm than good

Opinion by Paul Hockenos(CNN) Climate change is already wreaking lethal havoc on the world of flora and fauna. So, all hands on deck to save the planet, right? We’re behind in the chase and need all the clean energy resources we can muster to hit the 2015 Paris summit goals …

New Report Documents Poor Performance of Large Hydropower Business

Despite the enormous diversity in size, scale and geography of new dams being built, a relatively small number of corporations are responsible for their construction. Thus the policies and practices of these companies have tremendous implications for rivers and human rights. This report provides context for this situation and features …

Freshwater ecosystems wiped out in the Climate’s Name: a new study on hydropower frenzy in Europe.

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 …

South Asian countries join forces to destroy the last free-flowing river of Nepal

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. …

EDF: In the first decade a hydrodam could cause more warming than a coal-fired power plant

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 …