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DAM-L large dams renewable? - G8 thinks so: sign on letter <fwd>



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Date: Wed, 2 May 2001 10:22:17 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <200105021722.f42HMHd19115@DaVinci.NetVista.net>
Subject: LS: Sign-on letter to G8

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Dear friends, 
Sender: owner-irn-narmada@netvista.net
Precedence: bulk

As you might know, G8 has set up a task force on Renewables that is to work
towards promoting the development of renewable energy while identifying
economic, political and cultural barriers which have restrained the use of
renewable energy around the globe thus far. Unfortunately, like many other
mainstream developers, G8 tends to include Large Dams among Renewables,
which they clearly are not.

As you know, G8 can be quite influencial in setting up global developmental
agenda and we thought this would be a good opportunity to send a strong
message to the G8 that hydropower is not renewable energy. The Task Force is
expected to report to the G8 Heads of State next July. Hence the letter at
this stage. The letter appeals that large hydro be excluded from the
definition of renewables and also that even in case of small hydro, WCD
recommendations be followed.

The letter copied below, addressed to the two chairs of the Task Force has
been singed by Shripad Dharmadhikary of Narmada Bachao Andolan, India and
Antonio Tricarico on behalf of Reform the World Bank Campaign, Italy.

We urgently seek your endorsement for the letter to make it more effective.

Please send the name of the person, organisation and country to Antonio
Tricarico, atricarico@crbm.org, by May 7, 2001.

Thanking you and awaiting your endorsements,

Aviva Imhof
International Rivers Network
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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LETTER TO G8 RENEWABLES TASK FORCE
Mr. Corrado Clini
Director General
Department for the Environment
Italy

Mr. Mark Moody-Stuart
Shell Group
UK

SUBJECT:  G8 Renewable Task Force – large-scale hydro technology

        XX May 2001

Dear Messrs. Clini and Stuart,

We are writing to you regarding the work of the G8 Task Force on Renewables
set up after the Okinawa Summit in June 2000 and expected to report to the
G8 Heads of State in Genoa next July.

We warmly welcome the initiative by G8 countries to establish a Task Force
aimed at promoting the development of renewable energy while identifying
economic, political and cultural barriers which have restrained the use of
renewable energy around the globe thus far.

We appreciate the effort of the Task Force in setting the ambitious global
target of one billion people to be served by renewable energy within ten
years, which would set the scene for a dramatic growth of the sector and put
renewables at the centre of energy policy-making.
According to what we understand, the Task Force is considering the
possibility of supplying energy to 500 million people through off-grid
technologies, like solar PV, solar thermal, small wind, micro hydro and
biomass. We agree on the need to serve at least the half of these people on
a non-commercial basis, thus clearly reorienting the energy portfolio of
bilateral and multilateral agencies in favour of small-scale off-grid
renewables.

On the other hand, the Task Force considers the need to supply 300 million
people in developing countries and economies in transition with renewable
energy through wind, biomass, hydro, geothermal, solar thermal and solar PV
technologies. While agreeing on the need for more extensive development of
renewables to match growing energy demands in these countries, we are
concerned about the inclusion of large-scale hydropower in your definition
of renewable energy. We are writing to request that the Task Force
explicitly exclude large-scale hydropower when recommending renewable
on-grid technologies, for the following reasons.

In November 2000 the World Commission on Dams (WCD) presented its final
report, “Dams and Development”. During a two-year multi-stakeholder process
this independent body sponsored by the World Bank reviewed the performance
of large dams and made recommendations for future planning of water and
energy projects. The WCD found that the environmental and social costs of
large dams have been unreasonably high, and that dams have often failed to
deliver their projected benefits. The WCD found that better and cheaper
alternatives to large dams exist. These findings led the WCD to make a
number of important recommendations for future dam construction.

The WCD found that large dams contribute to global warming through emitting
greenhouse gases such as a methane as a result of decomposition of organic
matter in the reservoir and upstream areas. According to the WCD,

“A first estimate suggests that the gross emissions from reservoirs may
account for between 1% and 28% of the global warming potential of GHG
emissions. It also implies that all reservoirs – not only hydropower
reservoirs – emit GHGs...in some circumstances the gross emissions can be
considerable, and possibly greater than the thermal alternatives”.

The Task Force recognises that the spread of renewables in the global energy
market could substantially contribute to the reduction of GHG emissions both
in developed and developing countries as required under the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change. Because of their contribution to
global warming, large-scale dams do not represent a valid and
environmentally sustainable renewable alternative to thermal power plants.
.
The World Commission on Dams also found that large dams have had enormous
social impacts, displacing between 40-80 million people globally, and
affecting many millions more who have lost their livelihoods as a result of
changes to the rivers upon which they depend. As with nuclear power plants
and large thermal power plants, large dams have often faced strong
opposition by local communities who have had little opportunity to
participate in decisions regarding the project, and have had little access
to project information before financing approval and construction commences.
Furthermore, the WCD found that the benefits of large dams have largely gone
to the already well-off while poorer sectors of society have borne the
costs.

Past experiences have proved that massive projects like large-scale dams
cannot allow for participation and empowerment of local communities and
indigenous people due to the strong non-transparent interests backing them.
Corruption occurred during planning, bidding and implementation in several
large dam projects.

Small-scale renewable power plants have enormous potential to empower local
communities not only in less developed countries but also in economies in
transition. Through active involvement in project planning and management,
local communities feel more responsible for project success while gaining
the right to participate in decisions affecting their lives and their
rights.

Not only have large dams had enormous social and environmental impacts, but
economically large dams have failed to achieve their projected benefits. The
WCD finds that “Hydropower projects – as with other large dams – have
incurred cost overruns and schedule delays...one-fifth of the projects in
the sample achieve less than 75% of planned power targets. Energy output is
also lower than initially estimated”.

The World Commission on Dams has issued a set of guidelines for future dam
construction, which includes a recommendation that no project should proceed
without the free, prior and information consent of indigenous peoples, and
without the agreement of all affected peoples. According to the WCD,
project-affected people should be at the centre of the decision-making
process and should be amongst the first to benefit from any project. The WCD
also recommends that comprehensive and participatory assessments of the
needs to be met and different options for meeting these needs should be
developed before detailed studies are done on any specific project; and
priority should be given to demand side management measures and optimizing
the performance of existing infrastructure before building any new projects.

As NGOs who have been directly involved in the WCD process we look forward
to implementation of the WCD guidelines by all parties involved in
dam-building, including multilateral development banks and export credit
agencies, the private sector and national governments. Had the planning
process proposed by the WCD been followed in the past, many socially and
environmentally destructive large dams would not been built. On the
contrary, socially and environmentally sustainable renewable plants, which
have rarely been considered at all as alternatives to these projects, could
be the best option for supplying new energy to local communities and
national energy markets.

We welcome the final communiqué by the G8 Environment Ministers Summit that
took place in Trieste last March recognising the WCD as a relevant standard
to which export credit agencies from G8 countiries should refer while
drafting their common environmental guidelines.

According to our understanding, the Task Force is also focusing on
identifying barriers to the spread of renewables, and among them, the
negative role played by the international financial institutions and export
credit agencies in giving subsidies for the transfer of old-fashioned,
socially unjust and environmentally unsustainable technologies to developing
countries and economies in transition.

Controversial large-scale dams have benefited from $75 billion in financial
support by the World Bank Group in the last 50 years and have been receiving
more and more state subsidies channelled through export credits and credit
guarantees in the last ten years, like in the highly controversial case of
the mammoth Three Gorges hydropower dam in China. The WCD finds that in
developing countries, the selection of alternatives for meeting water, flood
control and electric power needs was, and is, frequently constrained because
financial institutions have a preference for “large dams rather than
non-structural alternatives”. At the same time, the report notes the failure
of financing agencies “to fulfil commitments made, observe statutory
regulations and abide by internal guidelines”. The situation is particularly
grave for the export credit agencies.

Therefore, we urge you as co-chairs of the G8 Renewable Task Force to
consider all social and environmental costs associated with large-scale dams
projects and how bilateral and multilateral subsidies given to this
technology have prevented a broader development of socially and
environmentally sustainable renewable technologies.

We ask you to explicitly refer only to small-scale hydro projects, excluding
large-scale dams, when considering sustainable renewable on-grid
technologies needed to achieve the goal of serving 300 million people in
developing countries and economies in transition by 2010. In order to
support recent developments in the definition of innovative international
policies, we urge the Task Force, in its final report, to recommend adoption
of WCD guidelines as a relevant international standard to which small-scale
hydro projects should adhere during their planning and implementation.

We remain faithfully yours and look forward to your prompt reply,


Antonio Tricarico                                    Shripad Dhamardhikary
Reform the World Bank Campaign                  Narmada Bachao Andolan
Italy                                                        India

On behalf of the following signatories:-



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