Ripple Effects:
Hydropower and Climate Change

Exploring Science in a Contested Arena

Small "ripple effects" can, under certain conditions, swell into wind-driven waves that curl and break and nearly overturn the tiny WCD research vessel that initiated them in the first place.

Such a ripple began in Montreal in February 2000. The World Commission on Dams and HydroQuebec, a Canadian utility, convened a small workshop of 19 leading climate scientists from Brazil, Finland, France and the United States. The workshop sought to review the latest scientific evidence regarding emissions of greenhouse gases from dam reservoirs, comparisons with emissions from other energy sources, and assessment methods for future dams.

That may sound harmless enough.

But in the process of reviewing and presenting the findings in a public forum, the WCD set off a chain reaction of worldwide media reports and correspondence, some accurate, others distorting the findings and the WCD role in compiling and sifting through them.

And while development of water and power is a sensitive enough issue on its own, the implications of dam-related greenhouse gas emissions on climate change, the Kyoto Protocol and the Clean Development Mechanism pushed WCD's work process into the stratosphere.

More importantly, the WCD-GHG-CDM wave continues to grow, building toward a special session before a larger assembly of 2000 limnologists in Melbourne next February.

The International Association of Theoretical and Applied Limnology (Societas Internationalis Limnologiae, SIL) promotes and communicates new and emerging knowledge among limnologists and water managers to advance the understanding of inland aquatic ecosystems and their management.

SIL's Donald Adams, who took part in the Montreal workshop, noted that there are many unresolved issues which must be addressed, as well as substantive areas of agreement and disagreement at the workshop concerning the claim that hydropower is a clean energy source, especially as related to the emissions of greenhouse gases (mainly methane and carbon dioxide).

"After the Montreal workshop it was felt that a session at the forthcoming SIL Congress would provide the required forum and an important first step in addressing these issues. Such a session will allow for a proper mechanism to have open discussion from all participants."

"There are also significant water quality issues resulting from the impoundment of free flowing streams and rivers. Many of these controversies are being reviewed, with final thematic publications, by the World Commission on Dams (WCD). However, there have been relatively few open forums, which allow for a thorough discussion by scientists and water managers in evaluating the importance of dams and reservoirs as part of the human and natural landscape."