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Hydropower and Sustainable Development: a Journey

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Hydropower and Sustainable Development: a Journey Hydropower and Sustainable Development: A Journey Article submitted to the World Energy Congress, 15 February 2010 Hydropower and Sustainable Development: A Journey Article submitted to the World Energy Congress 2010 International Hydropower Association Kristin Schumann, Lau Saili, Richard Taylor, Refaat Abdel‐Malek 1. Introduction Hydropower accounts for 16% of all global electricity production (2007, EIA 2010) and it is one of the world’s most widely used renewable, low-carbon energy resources. It plays an important role in enabling communities around the world to meet their power and water needs. In some regions the pace of hydropower growth has been rapid but with little guidance to ensure development is sustainable. However, some of the most promising and influential initiatives to improve development, such as the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol, have been driven by the hydropower sector itself. This paper addresses the progress that hydropower has made in the context of sustainable development over the past 15 years. Firstly, it will define what sustainability means in the hydropower context. Secondly, the application of sustainable hydropower development in practice will be examined. Finally, prominent initiatives that the sector has and is making to increase the sustainability performance of hydropower will be outlined. 2. Sustainable Development Background "The concept of sustainable development does imply limits, not absolute limits but limitations imposed by the present state of technology and social organizations on environmental resources and by the ability of the biosphere to absorb the effects of human activities. But technology and social organization can both be managed and improved to make way for a new era of economic growth." (WCED 1987, 8) The concept of living in harmony with nature is as old as humankind. However, a modern conception emerged in the term ‘sustainable development’ with the rise of green movements in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was a key theme of the United Nations (UN) Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972, which gave rise to the Stockholm Declaration. The Declaration proclaimed that it was possible to achieve economic growth in an equitable way while avoiding or minimizing negative impacts on the environment. The concept was developed over following years culminating in the 1987 UN report Our Common Future (WCED 1987), which established the almost universally used definition of sustainable development as “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED 1987, 8). This definition captured the spirit of the times whereby government, business, and civil society have strived to make development sustainable. This movement was capped by the 1992 Rio Declaration of the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro and reaffirmed in the Johannesburg Declaration of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002. The concept of sustainable development has developed from being depicted by as three concentric circles, through three pillars supporting a roof, to three integrated circles (Figure 1 Hydropower and Sustainable Development: A Journey Article submitted to the World Energy Congress, 15 February 2010 1). Initially, social and economic development was seen to be constrained by the environment. This concept developed towards a concept where economic, environmental, and social dimensions where all pillars of the same house and needed equal attention. The most current concept is that a dynamic interplay between the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of human activity needs to maintain a healthy environment, promote and invest in sustainable livelihoods, and foster economic growth. This balance is best shown by three integrated circles, which imply that none of the sustainability dimensions can be promoted without establishing trade-offs with the two others. Sustainable development Economy Social Economy Society Protection Growth Progress Environment Environment Social Economic Environmental A. Three Concentric Circles B. Three Pillars of Sustainability C. Three Integrated Circles Figure 1: Three Visual Representations of Sustainability The three dimensions of sustainability and how they should be balanced are the subject of much debate across academic and professional disciplines, and the public and private sectors. This reflects that sustainability has been an ‘essentially contested concept’ (Gaillie 1956), normative in nature and reflective of the acceptability of a particular development activity in the context of a particular society in a given place and time. Indeed, sustainable development is often criticised as a nebulous ‘catch-all’ which means all things to all people. Within the debate, two broad schools of thought are evident, sometimes referred to as ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ sustainability (Beckerman 1995, Neumayer 2003). The strong sustainability approach is radical in that it calls for bottom-lines in the social and environmental dimensions, since trade-offs may be the result of power asymmetry between negotiating/affected parties or the inability of an ecosystem to negotiate for itself. Following this approach entails that the pursuit of development must not lead to irreversible impacts on the environment: resources should not be depleted and ecosystems should not be altered. The alternative sustainability approach is based on collaboration and sensible compromise and considers that trade-offs between the three dimensions of sustainability are necessary in order to achieve sustainable development. Advocates assert that socio-economic development, particularly priorities such as poverty eradication, cannot be realised without modification of ecosystems. This second, cooperative approach therefore recognizes the necessity of trade-offs if development is to be achieved. However, it does not in itsself provide applicable sustainability indicators or a practical guidance for policy makers and the private sector when making decisions on investment and infrastructure development. 2 Hydropower and Sustainable Development: A Journey Article submitted to the World Energy Congress, 15 February 2010 In the policy arena the issue of sustainability has an interplay between the top-down and bottom-up policy dynamic. Top-down sees policy-makers legislating or regulating to oblige decision-makers and planners to comply with sustainability criteria. In the bottom-up dynamic, private actors start making business more sustainable without a hard regulatory environment in place (usually motivated by a healthy dose of risk aversion). In both dynamics, civil society has an important role to play as an ‘honest broker’ and educator of public policy makers and private sector decision-makers; it is the knowledge and awareness-raising which civil society actors bring to the table that helps change the way policy and business is done. It is against this historical and conceptual backdrop that ardent criticisms of hydropower increased in the 1990s; from civil society at national levels into regional and international domains. From reaction to pro-action the sector has developed sustainability tools, engaging in dialogue across sectors and stakeholders. This long journey has been to define what sustainability should mean in a hydropower context at the international level and how this should be practically applied and measured in the field. 3. Sustainable Development Dimensions of Hydropower “Diversify energy supply by developing advanced, cleaner, more efficient, affordable and cost- effective energy technologies, including fossil fuel technologies and renewable energy technologies, hydro included, and their transfer to developing countries on concessional terms as mutually agreed.” (WSSD 2002b, 19e) The World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 stipulated in of its Plan of Implementation that hydropower should be included in the drive to increase the contribution of renewable energy throughout the world. Hydropower technology itself does not impede the ability of future generations to meet their needs, however, sustainable development and the way hydropower has sometimes been developed have not always been in harmony; different development goals must combine and historical practices must change with new knowledge. Hydropower has been developed in its modern form over the past hundred years principally to provide cheap electricity for national economic development and safeguard a country’s energy security. In recent times this has been further supplemented by climate change mitigation and adaptation targets. Since 2000, however, the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) have shifted the goal of hydropower to eradicating poverty, changing unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, protecting and managing the natural resource base, and sustainably developing the world’s least developed countries. Any debate on hydropower sustainability needs to consider its many faces and effects. Projects can be run-of-river, include storage reservoirs or recycle water between reservoirs in the form of pumped storage. Projects can be in densely populated areas requiring resettlement, or be remote from any settlement. A dam can fragment a river where fish is plentiful and require conservation measures or a dam may impact a river of marginal biodiversity. Dams and reservoirs can be located in different climate zones, which will have different impacts on water
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