The Current Status of Environmental Criteria for Hydropower Development in the Mekong Region A Literature Compilation by Peter King, Jeremy Bird, Lawrence Haas Consultants Report to ADB, MRCS and WWF March 2007 Coordination and Editing: WWF/Marc Goichot WWF–Living Mekong Programme P.O. Box 7871. House. 39. Unit 05 Ban Saylom, Vientiane, Lao PDR Email:
[email protected] Design and Layout: WWF/Noy Promsouvanh The opinions and interpretations expressed within are those of authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Asian Development Bank, Mekong River Commission Secretariat and WWF. The Current Status of Environmental Criteria for Hydropower Development in the Mekong Region: A litterature compilation Foreword Population growth, economic development, and associated increases in personal wealth are causing growth in electricity demand across the Greater Mekong region, if not uniformly within the different countries, still at an overall rapid rate for the region as a whole. Different sets of options are open to meet this demand – each with unique advantages and disadvantages - all of which become entangled in the complex play of diverging priorities supported by different interest groups. In the mean time, the recent recognition of the role of human activities on climate change is leading to rethinking of the entire energy sector. As a result, a complex paradigm lies in front of decision makers, touching on crucial issues such as global sustainability, national security/autonomy and key economic strategies. GMS electricity markets will obviously end up relying on a combination of solutions. A spatial mismatch between resources and demand brought the development of a regional power grid, allowing further movements within the region to share large urban centres, peak loads, and opening energy export channels to Eastern China and Malaysia; thus adding even more complexity to the overall situation, and shifting the thinking further from a national to a regional scale.