Nature Conservancy; as well as commercial and development banks. The project aims to establish
a broadly endorsed sustainability assessment tool to measure and guide performance in the
hydropower sector.
In addition, a research project is underway, led jointly by UNESCO’s International Hydrological
Programme and the IHA, to review greenhouse gas emission from reservoirs, which has been
put forward as a reason for constraining large hydropower development.
The issue of the GHG status of freshwater reservoirs plays an important role in these discussions;
however, there is currently a significant problem because there is no scientific
consensus on how to measure the GHG status of freshwater reservoirs. This is causing difficulties
from global to local action. For example, the IPCC is waiting on further scientific
progress for guidance on national GHG inventories, and the UNFCCC is looking for
methodologies (measurement and predictive modelling) to quantify carbon offset for emission
trading. More generally, policy making on energy, water and climate action is compromised
by the current lack of understanding. This has a global impact, and especially on
developing countries.40
Since the CDM and ETS will be reviewed after the Copenhagen Conference in December 2009,
there will be an opportunity to put in place a regulatory regime that considers the adaptation
benefits from large, multi-purpose dams as well as ensuring their optimal use for the generation
of renewable energy to mitigate carbon emissions.