Climate Change

From September 2010 World Rivers Review The world gets about 20% of its electricity from hydropower, but in Sub-Saharan Africa that number is 60% (excluding coal-heavy South Africa) – and many countries get more than 80% of their electricity from dams. Drought-caused blackouts are common, and expected to get worse with climate change. Hundreds more dams are being planned, many of them in already dangerously hydro-dependent regions. This map shows the current status of hydrodependency across the continent, and plots some key proposed dams in these places. Finally, we include some informati

Exodus in Punjab. Action Aid The floods that are currently ravaging Pakistan have created a human tragedy beyond imagination. At least 1,600 people have lost their lives, 20 million people have been affected, and 4 million people have been left homeless. Many families have lost their whole existence – their homes, fields, crops and cattle – overnight, with no safety net to fall back on. The floods have also washed away schools, health centers, roads and bridges. Pakistan's civil society and international aid agencies are doing their utmost to bring relief to the victims of this traged

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'

Tucuruí dam in Brazil Andreas Missbach In November 2000, the World Commission on Dams published its ground-breaking report, Dams and Development, after an unprecedented multi-stakeholder process. Ten years later, Water Alternatives, an independent academic online journal, revisits the WCD and its impacts in a special issue, and explores the question: Is the WCD still relevant? A team of editors and guest editors have selected a range of 20 papers, six viewpoints, and four book reviews that help to illustrate the evolution in the dams debate. The goal of the special issue is to examine the in

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

A Bright Future For Hydro – Without Dams From March 2010 World Rivers Review A quiet revolution is underway in the world of hydropower. An emerging non-dam based hydro industry holds the promise of economically viable technologies that do not deplete resources or warm the planet, and do not wipe out species, ecosystems and cultures. With supportive policies from governments, non-dam hydro could become a key part of the world's energy mix over the coming decades, and could, as wind power already has, overtake big-dam hydro in terms of its share of new capacity additions. A t