Over the last 10 years, erratic weather patterns have made developing countries feel the impact of climate change. It is true that second-world economies sought relaxations from emissions target at the Paris Conference. Yet, thanks to civil society led pressure; protecting deteriorating environment has taken precedence over playing catch-up in GDP growth.
At home, growing consciousness to protect the environment was visible in the recent winter brick kilns ban in Punjab, imposed by the nascent PTI government. Appointment of advisor on climate change at federal level was another indication of increasing tailwind for environmental awareness. Zoom out to the region, and India and China have shown strong resolve to tackle the challenge of smog and pollution in urban centers
Yet, when it comes to energy sources, the raison d’etre of industrial pollution, the approach in developing nations seem grossly slow and misguided. One example is growing emphasis on hydropower as the cure all for renewable energy. According to a report by National Academy of Sciences, USA, almost all mega dams build globally since 1970s have been constructed in developing countries, with primary sites in Mekong Basin, China; Congo River, Africa; and, Amazon River Basin, South America.
According to this study, during the same period, dam removal rather than construction has become a norm in North America and Europe. Over 3,450 dams have been removed to date in Western Europe to date, with over 500 removed in USA during the last decade alone. Hydropower’s contribution to electrical supply in the United States has steadily declined, to under 6 percent in recent years.
Developed world has become acutely aware of negative externalities of dam building which span social as well as environmental costs. These include disrupting river ecology, causing substantial deforestation, loss of aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity, release of large amounts of greenhouse gases, displacement of thousands of people, affecting food systems, water quality. This is in addition to substantive risk of flooding at earthquake prone sites.
Nevertheless, the incentives to build mega dams in developing countries are fairly obvious. On the supply side, declining demand for hydropower across both sides of Atlantic has led the industry to peddle its benefits to governments from growing countries. On the surface, marginal benefits from hydropower and dam building are very high in developing countries where millions of people remain disconnected from electric grid. Multilaterals also drool over the opportunity to lend for mega infrastructural projects; thus, populist and dictatorial regimes alike promote and undertake dam building without sufficiently scrutinizing their environmental unsustainability.
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