Category: <span>Featured</span>

IRENA 2018: Strong Growth in Renewables and Continued Decrease in Hydropower Additions

  Graph:Annual hydropower installation in MW (IRENA 2019)   Hydropower increase in 2018 is less than 21 GW or 17% less than in 2017 and signifies steady decline in this sector for the fifth year in a row. We have no data which part of capacity was added through modernization …

The RwB Coalition addresses World Heritage Bodies on Dams Threatening Lake Baikal

The Rivers without Boundaries International Coalition (RwB) shared with the UNECSO its deep concerns with  spurred development of Egiin Gol Hydro Project and cancellation of basin-wide Regional environmental assessment (REA) of hydropower by the World Bank MINIS Project in Mongolia.  Later in a separate letter, the Coalition together with Greenpeace …

As Beijing Prepares to Lead on Biodiversity, It Should Rethink Its Hydropower

China-backed Hydropower Threatens to Wipe Out the Rarest Great Ape on Earth Bank of China – financed Batang Toru dam threatens the Tapanuli Orangutan’s shrinking forest home In 2020, China will host the biannual meeting of the Assembly of the Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), a multilateral treaty …

We Ask Bank of China Not To Kill Our Relatives!

Activists in Indonesia and abroad staged a coordinated protest on March 1 to draw attention to a controversial hydroelectric project in Sumatra funded by China that threatens the world’s rarest great ape, the Tapanuli orangutan. The activists protested out Chinese diplomatic missions and branches of state-owned Bank of China, which …

Bureya Hydropower Reservoir Operations Likely Triggered the Giant Landslide which Russian Army is Ordered to Blast.

The last year ended up with a  massive landslide blocking hydropower reservoir on Bureya River. Since the RwB reported on the issue last year considerable attention of national authorities and international media was drawn to it. Many politicians have participated in crisis-solving making this somewhat reminiscent of parallel  drama of …

Dam of Rocks Suddenly Blocked Bureya River Upstream of Hydropower Reservoir in Eastern Russia

The most interesting aspect from the RwB perspective is that massive new dam 800 meters wide, 400 meters long and 40-160 meters high altering a river with the largest hydropower cascade in Russian Far East was accidentally  discovered by two local hunters around December 14. It is soothing to know …