Cleantech China attracts controversy for unethical hydropower

The Chinese government and state-owned electricity enterprises are adopting new hydropower ambitions, despite continuing controversy over its ecological and humanitarian impact.

Feeling the pressure from energy efficiency and emissions reduction targets, hydropower is once again high on the agenda, after public pressure brought the plans to dam China’s Nu River to a close seven years ago.

“Hydropower development is a must,” said a senior official from China’s top economic planners, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). The Nu River is China’s last great waterway without large-scale dams, and plans for it’s industrial use are being reinstated.

Shi Lishan, Deputy Head of the New Energy and Renewal Energy Division of China’s National Energy Administration, said: “My belief is that development is a must. Because the Nu’s upper and lower reaches are already built up.”

But exploiting the Nu river on a large scale remains controversial and hydropower developers are again attracting public attention.

"It's true that hydropower exploitation can bring economic development, but not necessarily to the benefit of local people," says Ma Jun, Director of Chinese NGO the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE).

Jun believes that today's insufficiently transparent policymaking mechanisms are maximising the interests of hydropower industry, officials and a small number of experts, at the expense of ecology, livelihoods and climate change.

Jun said: "Environmental groups are not completely against dams. We approve of appropriate development. But China's present speed of development is excessive."

According to Green World Investor, China has the world’s largest hydropower capacity at 200 gigawatts (GW) and it plans to double the capacity by 2020.China is mostly dependent on coal power and hydropower to meet the electricity demands of its fast growing economy.

The Chinese government committed to obtaining 15 per cent of its power from renewable sources by 2020 and to reduce emissions per unit of GDP by 40-45 per cent, based on 2005 levels.

Electricity supplies have previously been cut off in some regions, and in the first half of 2010, energy consumption per unit of GDP jumped, demonstrating China’s challenge in achieving its energy targets.

China’s rapid uptake of hydropower started on the Mekong River and has advance rapidly ever since. The Mekong cascade -as it is termed- has caused considerable controversy in downstream countries, with China’s actions being blamed for 2008 floods, which affected provinces in Eastern and Southern China, and the recent droughts.

A severe drought, currently threatening the crops and food security of China, could provoke further rejection of hydropower plans.

China as the forerunner in the global renewable energy industry, with its largest cleantech sectors including agriculture, energy efficiency, energy generation, water and waste water management, energy storage and recycling and waste.

Renewable energy projects are often criticised for their impact on the environment, and China is left to weigh up the benefit of low-carbon energy and corporate development against ecological destruction and displaced people.

Top governmental bodies, the National People's Congress (NPC) and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) will meet in March; and the elements of the 12th Five Year Plan concerning energy efficiency, emissions reduction and hydropower exploitation will be at the heart of their discussions.

Image: feral arts | Flickr