International Hydropower Association Congress Adopts Sustainability Protocol

The International Hydropower Association (IHA) has adopted a Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol, developed jointly by the hydropower industry and social and environmental NGOs, like Oxfam and The Nature Conservancy, among others.Participants at its biennial World Congress on Advancing Sustainable Hydropower on 14-17 June 2011, in Foz de Iguaçu, Brazil, also reflected on the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment on renewable energy, which notes sustainability does not have a direct relationship with dam size, an issue of interest for financial institutions and the Clean Development Mechanism, which establish limits based on dam size.

The meeting also presented a broad view of the sustainability challenges to hydropower development, and discussed the opportunities arising from the growing interest in green growth strategies within the international community, as well as from the growth of carbon market finance opportunities. It established the need to diversify power sources and consider renewables as 'complementary' rather than alternative sources of energy. During the meeting panels were held on integrating water and energy policies, challenges and opportunities climate change presents to the hydropower industry, freshwater conservation, emissions from hydropower, and social and development issues related to hydropower. Special discussions were also held on the social and environmental impacts of the Belo Monte hydropower project recently approved in Brazil's Amazon basin