External report

Haya and Payal, 2011 A study released by the University of California at Berkeley shows that large hydro projects under the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) do not comply with the mechanism’s essential additionality requirements because they are being built regardless of the climate financing. CDM carbon credits from such business-as-usual projects increase global emissions because they can be bought by industialised countries to meet climate targets. The study shows that these projects are not being built because of CDM support but because of non-financial or strategic decisions

Laos may violate five points of international environmental law if it proceeds with the Xayaburi Dam as proposed, according to a legal memorandum submitted on November 22, 2011 to the Mekong River Commission and regional governments. The legal analysis, written by the U.S. law firm Perkins Coie, analyzes several obligations under international environmental law that Lao PDR may violate if it allows the construction of the Xayaburi Dam: The EIA for the Xayaburi Dam should be redone to conform to international expectations for a large dam on a transboundary river, which includes detailed analysi

China Power Investment funded and commissioned the Changjiang Institute of Survey, Planning, Design and Research (CISPDR) to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the Myitsone Dam with Burmese experts from the Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association (BANCA). In March 2010, CISPDR finalized the full EIA, which was finally published in September 2011. The original document can be found on the developer's website, but for those who cannot view it there, please see a copy of the document below. In 2013, International Rivers working with local environmental NGOs in Myanmar co

When not teaching geosciences at Colorado State University, Ellen Wohl is a river historian. This is an excerpt from her new book, A World of Rivers: Environmental Change on Ten of the World’s Great Rivers (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2011).  The Nile The Nile River forms northern Africa’s tree of life. Waters from nearly three million square kilometers of Africa feed the Nile. Yet the river’s average yearly flow is less than 2% of the mighty volumes that gush into the Atlantic each year from the Amazon. Where the Amazon produces an average of 730,000 cubic meters of water per each squ

On August 3, 2011 International Rivers submitted a legal opinion by U.S law firm Perkins Coie to the Mekong Regional Comission (MRC) and Regional Governments. The opinion states that "Lao PDR's unilateral action to prematurely terminate the PNPCA process, without allowing its neighbor countries to properly conclude that process, violates the Mekong Agreement, and therefore international law." Read the full legal opinion by Perkins Coie in English Read the full legal opinion by Perkins Coie in Vietnamese

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (also known as the Grand Millennium Dam), now being developed near the Sudan border in great secrecy, has raised questions about its environmental and human impacts the project will bring. This author, who has worked in the energy sector, analyzed the project's efficiency, and raises questions about whether this project is an appropriate investment for a economically struggling country like Ethiopia. Read the full report This chart, from the report, shows how inefficient the proposed dam is compared to other dams.

In June, 2011, three recursos de protección (roughly translated as injunctions) were filed against the approval of the HidroAysén Environmental Impact Assessment. The legal grounds for the recursos were that the approval was arbitrary, illegal, and violated constitutional rights.

English Summary The debate over a national energy policy in Chile is just beginning. A combination of electricity projects has created multiple conflicts and generated public questioning of their necessity and their approval process. The absence of a national energy policy in Chile that permits diversification of the energy grid and improvement of the sector's growth and sustainability is clearly an unequivocal deficit that can no longer be ignored. As recommended by the International Energy Agency, an exhaustive revision of energy policies with a real and effective promise on the part of

This analysis by Bloomberg New Energy Finance and Natural Resources Defense Council compares the levelised cost of energy (LCOE) for conventional and renewable energy sources in Chile in 2011, 2020 and 2030 to show the evolution of the costs of non-conventional renewable energy technologies. It then shows the impacts of the costs of transmission, fuel and pollution control investments on the  LCOE. Finally, the analysis presents a scenario showing the possible impact of non-conventional renewable energy on peak energy prices. Dowload Chile Levelised Cost of Energy.

Corporate Social Responsibility guidelines adopted by members of China's International Contractors Association