NGOs condemn dam power at COP21

[geovalin]

Zoe Holman

Major hydropower projects like the large-scale dams under way in Cambodia’s waterways are a “false solution” to climate change, according to a global coalition of 300 NGOs who are calling on parties at UN climate talks in Paris (COP21) to bar such schemes from climate initiatives.

The manifesto, released last week with five Cambodian NGO signatories, says that hydropower projects posing as “clean and green” energy have become the beneficiaries of climate funding through credit schemes like the World Bank’s Climate Investment Funds.

However, the ensuing worldwide rush to construct some 3,700 hydropower dams is likely to aggravate rather than mitigate the effects of climate change, it says. Among their adverse effects, increased greenhouse emissions from reservoirs, in particular in tropical climates, are deemed comparable to the impact of the aviation sector and in some cases, greater than coal-fired power plants.

read more: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ngos-condemn-dam-power-cop21

[Srikcir]

How about the NGO's buy Cambodia a nuclear solar power plant instead?

Interesting information on increased greenhouse emissions from dam reservoirs.

Dam methane emissions are responsible for at least 4% of the total warming impact of human activities. Dams are the largest single human generated source of methane, being responsible for 23% of all methane emissions due to human activities. Over the short term methane is more damaging to the environment than CO₂ emissions.

https://www.internationalrivers.org/resources/greenhouse-gas-emissions-from-dams-faq-4064