Rivers without Boundaries

Any Plans Affecting Lake Baikal Require Rigorous Assessments According to the UNESCO Guidelines

Rivers without Boundaries International Coalition (RwB) and Greenpeace Russia Submission to the World Heritage Center and the IUCN. April 2018 Concerns regarding implementation of WHC decisions on Lake Baikal and recommendations for the 2018 World Heritage Committee Decision Lake Baikal is undergoing serious environmental crisis. In 2017 among the good …

THE FATE OF HYDROPOWER IN THE LIGHT OF GLOBAL TRENDS IN RENEWABLE ENERGY INVESTMENT

According to the report jointly prepared by UN Environment‘s Economy Division, Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance, and Bloomberg New Energy Finance in April 2018, the share of hydropower in net additions of installed capacity in 2017 continued to shrink globally. The RwB merged the Report’s …

Study claims hydropower development will increase poverty and harm food security in the Mekong region

Mekong River Commission Secretariat (MRCS) socioeconomic specialist Nguyen Thi Ngoc Minh said that the scenarios for 2020 and 2040 showed that if hydropower dam development in the Mekong River continues as planned, the economic benefits to the region would be overshadowed by the adverse impacts of the development. “Development plans …

Arctic gas plant threatens native peoples in Ob River Mouth

  In 2016-17 The RwB Coalition and allies have been trying to get response from Chinese banks about environmental and social safeguards used when lending to Yamal LNG Project.  We still have no response. This article in China Dialogue by Jenny Johnson contains new details on this growing threat to …

The IFC has published a handbook on environmental flows – essential guide for already existing hydropower plants

The International Finance Corporation (part of the World Bank Group) has published the IFC Handbook on good practice in environmental flows for hydropower projects. The book written by top experts in the field of E-flows and edited by the IFC describes what the World Bank Group expects to be a …

“Green” Lords ‘greenwashing’ the Russian energy giant

A Baikal seal on Lake Baikal. By Per Harald Olsen – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0. London-listed En+ Group published its 2017 financial results  with revenues exceeding USD 12 billion and “environmental  provision”  of mere USD 3 million.  On the same day  James Cusick  questioned. In openDemocracy UK the behavior …