Water & Energy Solutions

Power 4 People Call for Action

Wednesday, September 25, 2013
The Power 4 People campaign calls for a fundamental shift in global energy lending to ensure universal access to modern energy for all people in a sustainable and climate-resilient way by 2030. This platform includes the demands for governments and international finance institutions.

Power 4 People

Community-based solar power in Orissa/India (Dipti Vaghela)
Despite billions invested in the energy sector, 1.3 billion people still do not have access to electricity. The World Bank and other international finance institutions continue to invest in large hydropower and fossil fuels despite a history of environmental devastation, destroyed livelihoods and economic boondoggles. International Rivers is working to pressure institutions to invest in decentralized energy solutions that increase access for the poor.

Take Action to Protect Rivers during COP17

A Solar Fair in Argentina
A Solar Fair in Argentina In today's changing climate, we need decentralized and diversified water and energy solutions that can best respond to increasingly unpredictable weather patterns. What we're getting instead is a push for more large dams. From November 28 to December 9, 2011, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa – COP17 – will bring together governments, international organizations, industry, and civil society to advance the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The hydropower industry and major financial institutions like

World Bank to Lead Climate Finance Without Energy Strategy?

Monday, November 28, 2011
On the first day of COP17 in Durban, South Africa, we launched a report with a host of other organizations working on climate change to shame the World Bank for promoting climate finance while not agreeing to a truly clean, forward-thinking Energy Strategy in 2011. The Bank lacks an Energy Strategy that promotes truly renewable energy and decentralized energy solutions to erradicate energy poverty. Read the report below, and Take Action to send a message to the World Bank to leave large hydropower out of its Energy Strategy. Unclear on the Concept Follow this link to download the report cour

10 Ways to Protect Rivers from Climate Change and Dams

Glacial lakes in Bhutan
Healthy rivers are critical for supporting life on Earth. They are especially necessary in light of the additional stresses that climate change will have on river-dependent communities and ecosystems. Watch our Google Earth 3D tour and read our online factsheet to learn more about why damming rivers is the wrong solution to climate change, and then take the 10 steps towards building a more river-conscious community: Spread the Word 1. Share the Google Earth video with your friends, families, and coworkers on Facebook and Twitter. 2. Show the video during an International Day of Action for

Cutting Edge Energy from Estuaries?

The Amazon River meets the sea - potential site for future non-dam salinity-based hydro?
The Amazon River meets the sea - potential site for future non-dam salinity-based hydro? Norman Kuring/NASA Battery-operated electric vehicles are cutting CO2 emissions and raising awareness of our transportation carbon footprint. Recent cutting edge research now shows that batteries can also be harnessed in rivers and estuaries as a non-dam and hopefully low-impact form of electricity generation. According to Stanford University, a team lead by Yi Cui (Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering), has developed a battery that takes advantage of the difference in salinity betwee

Climate Funds to Underwrite the World Bank’s Love Affair with Big Dams?

Dead trees in Balbina Reservoir
Dead trees in Balbina Reservoir Pedro Ivo Simoes Climate funds such as the Prototype Carbon Fund and the European carbon market prioritize support for renewable energy technologies, and exclude large hydropower from this definition. There are good reasons for this: Big dams irreversibly damage freshwater ecosystems, which are already reeling under the impacts of climate change. Slow, lumpy investments in large dams are not well suited for the uncertainties of climate change, which call for nimble, decentralized and flexible energy strategies. Finally, the purpose of carbon credits is to fac

Spotlight on Clean Stoves

Women demonstrate an improved cook stove in a Darfur Refugee camp. (Darfur Stoves)
From March 2011 World Rivers Review Andree Sosler, Executive Director of Darfur Stoves, talks about the importance of clean stoves. Improved cookstoves are critical to improving both the energy and health needs of women in Women demonstrate an improved cook stove in a Darfur Refugee camp. (Darfur Stoves) developing countries. More than half of the world's population - three billion people - cook their food and heat their homes by burning coal and biomass, including wood, dung, and crop residues, in open fires or rudimentary stoves. According to the World Health Organization, exposure to smo

Interview: A Woman of Light and Hope

Laurie Stone
From March 2011 World Rivers ReviewLaurie Stone Laurie Guevara-Stone is the International Program Manager for Solar Energy International, a Colorado-based group that provides hands-on training in renewable energy around the globe. She shared her insights from her more than 20 years' experience in the field of clean, decentralized energy. WRR: Describe what you do. What motivated you to enter the field of clean energy? LGS: I coordinate all of our international workshops and trainings. We have five different workshops in Latin America each year, and we also train in-country organizations and

Clean, Cheap, Plentiful: Energy Efficiency Video

Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Global demand for energy is growing by leaps and bounds, and politicians the world over are responding with an environmentally damaging roll-out of big dams, more coal mining, and a push for more nuclear plants. But there is a better way to meet our needs. Efficiency is the cheapest, safest, fastest source of energy – and there is huge potential worldwide to offset new energy supply projects. If energy efficiency was made a top priority, many of the planet’s rivers could be spared from the ravages of large dams. Global warming could be dramatically slowed. Poor countries could s

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