Letter

President Alvaro Colom 6a. Avenida 4-19 zona 1 Casa Presidencial Guatemala City Guatemala Tel. (502) 2383-8383 info@scep.gob.gt Mr. President Alvaro Colom, We respectfully urge you to sign the Reparations Agreement that was negotiated between the government and the communities affected by the Chixoy Dam. We understand that the planned ceremony to sign the agreement on May 11, 2010 was cancelled by the government, and that your office has remained silent about the issue since then. Since the late 1990s we have closely followed the tremendous effort that these communities have made to have th

Presidente Alvaro Colom 6ª. Avenida 4-19 zona 1 Casa Presidencial Ciudad de Guatemala Tel. (502) 2383-8383 info@scep.gob.gt Respetado Señor Presidente Alvaro Colom, Saludos cordiales. Las organizaciones abajo firmantes le escribimos con todo respecto urguiéndole para que firme el Acuerdo Gubernativo sobre el Plan de Reparaciones para las Comunidades cobijadas en COCAHICH. Entendemos que el compromiso del 11 de mayo para la realizar los actos de la firma fueron cancelados por el gobierno, y que su oficina se mantiene en silencio al respecto desde ese entonces. Desde el final de los 90s hemos

Comments to ERM Certification and Verification Services Ltd Regarding the Guangxi Dahua Hydropower Project International Rivers provides the following comments on the application for CDM validation of the Guangxi Dahua Hydropower Project (GDHP). The comments are based on information from both government and industry online sources. Summary of Concerns The 110MW GDHP, which is an extension of the existing Dahua Dam, is non-additional. The website of the operator of the existing dam states that the expansion project started construction in 2007 and was completed in July 2009. It cannot therefor

Chairman Nichols and CARB Board Members: On January 27, 2010, seventy state legislators, public health experts, labor leaders, businesses, and environmental groups, including many of the groups and individuals signed on below, wrote to you expressing our concerns with the 49% offset limit that had been proposed in CARB’s Preliminary Draft Cap and Trade Regulation (November 2009). We requested that the offset limit be tightened to ensure that the cap and trade program fulfill its promise of maximizing emission reductions in the state’s most heavily polluting sectors: transportation fuels, e

Ms. Kathy Sierra Vice President, Sustainable Development Network The World Bank 1818 H Street NW Washington, DC 20433 Dear Ms. Sierra, As the World Bank Group develops its Energy Strategy, we are concerned that the Bank's pledge to increase support for large hydropower projects will result in increased poverty and irreversible social and environmental damages. A decade after the release of the World Bank-supported World Commission on Dams (WCD) report, the evidence continues to mount that large dams bring significant and unmitigated costs to society and to riverine ecosystems: The UN'

To: Brian Dames Chief Executive Officer, Eskom By e-mail: brian.dames@eskom.co.za CC: President of South Africa, Mr Jacob Zuma (president@po.gov.za)       President of Mozambique, Mr Armando Guebuza by  (www.presidencia.gov.mz) This year is the 10th anniversary of the World Commission on Dams’ groundbreaking work to create higher standards for dam projects – standards intended to avoid undue harm to our rivers and those who depend on them. South Africa was the home for the Commission (“WCD”), and has been at the forefront in adopting the WCD’s recommendations. Yet Eskom’s

It is public knowledge that the Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES) intends to act as the principal financier of the project denominated Aproveitamento Hidrelétrico de Belo Monte, on the Xingú River, State of Pará, independent of its financial, economic, social, or environmental cost. It has already been publicly announced that the bank is disposed to directly contribute a minimum of R$ 12.000.000.000 (12 billion reais), which would be the largest individual investment of the financial institution to date. By way of the present particular instrument and in the most

Given the rapid progress of the Xayabuti Dam and Don Sahong Dam in Lao PDR, International Rivers wrote a letter to the Water Resource and Environment Administration of Lao government in order to request copies of the draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports of these dam projects on June 14, 2010.On 9 June 2010, the Vientiane Times newspaper reported that Mega First Corporation Berhad had signed a joint venture agreement with Electricite Du Laos to develop the Don Sahong hydropower project. The Mekong River Commission also reports that a full EIA for the Don Sahong Dam has been subm

Movimento Xingu Vivo Para Sempre, Terra de Direitos - Organização de Direitos Humanos, Conselho Indigenista Missionário – CIMI, Sociedade Paraense de Direitos Humanos (SDDH), Justiça Global, Comitê Metropolitano do Movimento Xingu Vivo (Belém – Pará), Prelazia do Xingu, Comissão Pastoral da Terra – Pará, Rede FAOR, Associação de Defesa Etno-ambiental - Kanindé, aiming to strengthen former denunciations sent to the United Nations and this Illustrious Representative, bring to your awareness new facts of violation of judicial independence concerning the case of the construction

International Rivers Submission to the WCI Offset Committee International Rivers provides the following comments regarding the WCI Offsets Committee's "Offset System Essential Elements Draft Recommendations Paper" issued in April 2010. We believe that the WCI's first priority must be to ensure the environmental integrity of the emissions cap and any offsets that may be used to achieve the regional cap. Our core concerns are that the WCI develop processes to ensure that offsets deliver reductions that are real, additional, verifiable and enforceable by WCI partners, and resul