Climate Change

Wrong Climate for Big Dams: Fact Sheet

Destroying Rivers Will Worsen Climate Crisis Proponents of large dams, hoping to capitalize on concern for climate change, are promoting a major expansion of large dams in developing countries. Yet large dams are highly vulnerable to climate change, which is changing rivers in ways we cannot predict. At the same time, healthy rivers are critical for helping people adapt to a changing climate. We need a water and energy revolution that dramatically cuts climate pollution and preserves the planet’s lifelines. Reducing climate pollution and eradicating poverty are two of the biggest challenges

Southeast Asian Dam Still a Carbon Source Ten Years Later

Nam Leuk Reservoir, an ADB-funded project
Nam Leuk Reservoir, an ADB-funded project China International Water & Electricity Corp One of the first reservoir emissions studies ever to be conducted in Southeast Asia has just been published, and the results may be a wake-up call to dam builders trying to win carbon credits for hydropower projects in Southeast Asia. The international team of researchers spent two years measuring the greenhouse gas emissions from two sub-tropical reservoirs in Laos, the Nam Ngum and the Nam Leuk reservoirs (the latter of which diverts water from the Nam Leuk River to the Nam Ngum Reservoir). What they f

Letting the Market Play Means Fraud and Few Environmental Benefits

Gaming the environment
Gaming the environment Friends of the Earth As Wall Street and the EU continue to reel under the crisis brought on by the financial deregulation of global markets, a recent report on the EU's carbon market shows just how far these (mal)practices have spread.  "Letting the market play: corporate lobbying and the financial regulation of EU carbon trading," co-produced by Carbon Trade Watch and Corporate Europe Observatory, reveals how under-regulation in a market mechanism meant to reduce global carbon emissions led to fraud and over-speculation. The EU is currently changing its

Wrong Climate for Big Dams

Thursday, November 3, 2011
Destroying Rivers Will Worsen Climate CrisisRead the full fact sheet: (English)(Spanish)(Portuguese)(Chinese)(Hindi)(Bangla)(German)(Urdu)(Russian) Proponents of large dams, hoping to capitalize on concern for climate change, are promoting a major expansion of large dams in developing countries. Yet large dams are highly vulnerable to climate change, which is changing rivers in ways we cannot predict. At the same time, healthy rivers are critical for helping people adapt to a changing climate. We need a water and energy revolution that dramatically cuts climate pollution and preserves the plan

Clean-Energy Credits Tarnished

Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Originally published in Nature WikiLeaks reveals that most Indian claims are ineligible. As the world gears up for the next round of United Nations climate-change negotiations in Durban, South Africa, in November, evidence has emerged that a cornerstone of the existing global climate agreement, the international greenhouse-gas emissions-trading system, is seriously flawed. Critics have long questioned the usefulness of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which was established under the Kyoto Protocol. It allows rich countries to offset some of their carbon emissions by investing in climate-

WikiLeaks Cable Highlights High Level CDM Scam in India

A recent WikiLeaks cable from the US Consulate in Mumbai provides irrefutable evidence that carbon credits generated by Indian projects and sold to European countries under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) are a lot of hot air.  It reports on a seminar in 2008 with the US Consulate General Office, analysts from the Government Accountability Office (which later released a critical report on offsets), and the executives of top Indian companies. The cable notes that these companies "conceded that no Indian project could meet the 'additionality in investment criteria' to b

WikiLeaks Puts Integrity of UN Carbon Offsetting Scheme Under Question

Monday, September 19, 2011
For immediate release Large Hydro Project in India Under ScrutinyWikiLeaks Puts Integrity of UN Carbon Offsetting Scheme Under QuestionBrussels, 19 September 2011. CDM Watch and International Rivers call on the CDM Executive Board to reject the mega Rampur Hydroelectric Project in India from receiving CDM carbon credits because it does not comply with essential CDM requirements. They also call on the Swedish Energy Agency, as a party involved in the project, to prove compliance with World Commission of Dams criteria. A cable released by WikiLeaks earlier this month states that Indian proje

World Bank, Climate Change and Energy Financing: Something Old. Something New?

Friday, April 15, 2011
In April, 2011, we co-authored a report with Groundwork and Friends of the Earth on energy financing at the World Bank, titled "World Bank, Climate Change, and Energy Financing: Something Old. Something New?". Read the report below, and download the report at the link that follows. Download the report (courtesey of Scribd)

Infographic: When Dams Pollute

Three Gorges
Dams can be major generators of greenhouse gases, but many people are unaware just how much global warming impact they can have. For the uninitiated, the concept may seem far-fetched. Surely dams can't be bigger generators of greenhouse gases than...a coal burning power plant?! Check out the following infographic to learn how dams cause the planet to get hotter. Download this infographic (PNG file, right-click and save as to download)What do you think?Before reading this, did you know that some dams could generate more greenhouse gas than a comparably sized coal plant?What other types

Why Big Dams Are the Wrong Response to Climate Change

The reservoir of ther Balbina Dam in Brazil emits more greenhouse gases than a coal-fired power plant
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
The reservoir of ther Balbina Dam in Brazil emits more greenhouse gases than a coal-fired power plant Wikimedia Commons The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its Special Report on Renewable Energy on June 14, 2011. The report provides strong evidence for the large potential of renewable energy sources to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Its quality is weakened by a strong bias in the treatment of the hydropower sector. The attached critique by International Rivers points out the flaws in the IPCC report’s hydropower chapter, and complements it with critical f

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