Frauke Urban

An analysis of China's investment in the hydropower sector in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region

The Mekong River’s natural resources offer large benefits to its populations, but it also attracts the interest of foreign investors. Recently, Chinese firms, banks and government bodies have increasingly invested in large hydropower projects in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region. Due to China’s rapid economic growth, its rapid industrialisation and its limited domestic natural resources, the Chinese government has issued the ‘Going Out Strategy’ which promotes investments in overseas natural resources like water and energy resources. In search for climate-friendly low-carbon energy, cheap electricity and access to a growing market, Chinese institutions turn to Southeast Asia where Chinese institutions are currently involved in more than 50 on-going large hydropower projects as contractors, investors, regulators and financiers. These Chinese institutions have influence on environmental and social practices as well as on diplomatic and trade relations in the host countries. Currently, there are major gaps in understanding who is engaged, why, how and with what impacts. This paper therefore aims to assess the motives, actors, beneficiaries and the direct and indirect impacts of China’s investment in large hydropower projects in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region. The authors use the ‘Rising Powers Framework’ to assess these issues, which is an adapted version of the Asian Drivers Framework.

China as a new shaper of international development: the environmental implications

The emergence of China as a global player challenges the pre-existing dominance of the OECD countries and will continue to be a crucial force for global change in coming decades. The implications of China’s rise will be most significant for low- and middle-income countries, but the outcomes will also affect China’s relations with traditional donors and the understanding of the process of development. While these issues are increasingly explored at the political and economic level, very little analysis is available for the environmental impacts that China has on low- and middle-income countries. It is well understood that China plays a major role in relation to climate change, energy use and natural resource use at the global level; however, the perspective of China’s environmental impacts on low- and middle-income countries is underexplored. This Special Issue, therefore, elaborates the rise of China from the environmental perspective and assesses the impacts of China’s rise on low- and middle-income countries for international research, policy and practice in the field of environment and development. The findings draw on insights relevant for energy, water, forestry and land issues in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Pro-poor low carbon development and the role of growth

Climate change adaptation and mitigation need to cut across all poverty reduction efforts, including any post-2015 architecture. However, low carbon development (LCD) debates to date have been mainly about high and middle-income countries. There are good reasons why even the poorest countries with low emissions might be interested in pursuing LCD. This article assesses the controversial role of growth for LCD. The article argues that we need to link up pro-poor policy debates with the low carbon debates as part of a post-MDG agenda. The paper explores several policy responses to LCD and analyses how pro-poor these policy responses are.

Climate-Change Mitigation Revisited: Low-Carbon Energy Transitions for China and India

China and India are heavily dependent on high-carbon fossil fuels. This article elaborates the implications of low-carbon energy transitions in the two countries, which can mitigate their serious contribution to climate change while allowing economic growth. Three modelling case studies are presented: for the Chinese power sector, the economy of Beijing and rural Indian households without access to electricity. They demonstrate a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and energy use, while costs are likely to increase. Financial assistance and technology transfer will be needed to support their efforts towards a climate-friendly low-carbon economy.

The Livelihood Challenges of Resettled Communities of the Bui Dam Project in Ghana and the Role of Chinese Dam-Builders

Emerging issues from Bui hydro-power project are suggesting that the experiences of two earlier hydropower projects in Ghana failed in preventing challenges related to resource access and livelihoods. This paper examined the nature of the challenges, their causes, why they were not avoided and the role of the Chinese builders. Forty-three interviews and eleven focus group discussions were conducted and qualitative data analysed by themes using narrative analysis. Our findings show that the livelihoods of the resettled communities on balance are negatively impacted by the construction of the dam. While Chinese dam-builders played a major role in financing and enabling the dams construction, the Ghanaian governance arrangements were found to be more important in addressing the livelihood challenges.

Evaluating the Behaviour of Chinese Stakeholders Engaged in Large Hydropower Projects in Asia and Africa

Hydropower dams are back in the spotlight owing to a shifting preference for low carbon energy generation and their possible contribution to mitigating climate change. At the forefront of the renaissance of large hydropower dams are Chinese companies, as the builders of the worlds largest dams at home and abroad, opening up opportunities for low- and middle-income countries. However, large hydropower dams, despite their possible developmental and carbon reduction contributions, are accompanied by huge economic costs, profound negative environmental changes and social impacts. Using fieldwork data from four hydropower projects in Ghana, Nigeria, Cambodia and Malaysia, this paper evaluates the behaviour of Chinese stakeholders engaged in large hydropower projects in Asia and Africa. We do this by first exploring the interests of the different Chinese stakeholders and then by investigating the wider implications of these Chinese dams on the local, national and international contexts. The paper concludes that hydropower dams will continue to play a prominent role in future efforts to increase energy security and reduce energy poverty worldwide, therefore the planning, building and mitigation strategies need to be implemented in a more sustainable way that takes into account national development priorities, the needs of local people and the impacts on natural habitats.

China’s dam-builders: their role in transboundary river management in South-East Asia

Abstract This article investigates China’s role as the world’s largest builder of and investor in large dams, focussing on the Greater Mekong Sub-Region in South-East Asia. It addresses the role Chinese actors play in dam-building as well as the environmental, social, economic and political implications by drawing on case studies from Cambodia and Vietnam. The article finds that China’s dam-building is perceived very differently in different countries of South-East Asia. In Cambodia, the dams in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region are considered instruments of economic growth and development, whereas downstream in Vietnam the dams are seen as potentially undermining national growth, development and security.

Large Dams in Asia: Contested Environments Between Technological Hydroscapes and Social Resistance

Large dams have been debated controversially for several decades due to their large-scale and often irreversible social and environmental impacts. While dams were considered as powerful symbols of modernity and development throughout much of the 20th century, the displacement of tens of millions of people worldwide, the unequal distribution of costs and benefits, and severe environmental damage (WCD 2000) led to a global decline in dam-building in the 1990s and early 2000s. Some even claim that ‘‘dam has been a dirty word for years’’ (The Economist, 2009:1). In the light of climate change, however, hydropower is experiencing a renaissance in many parts of the world, as it is viewed as a cost-effective, low-carbon energy source. Studying the rise, fall, and renaissance of large dams is therefore an important and timely endeavor. Large Dams in Asia examines the long-standing dams debate from the perspective of ‘‘contested development paradigms across changing historical and political contexts’’ (p 2). The book addresses contentious and controversial dam and water management issues in a nuanced, balanced, but still critical way. Looking beyond technocratic narratives and technological fixes, it highlights political, socioeconomic, and ecological aspects of dams and hydroengineering. Chapter 1 by Nüsser on ‘‘Technological Hydroscapes in Asia: The Large Dams Debate Reconsidered’’ provides an insightful and well-informed account of the modern history of dam building from various political, social, environmental, and technological perspectives. It explores the short-lived decline of dam building and the current renaissance due to climate change considerations. In Chapter 2, on ‘‘Misplaced Knowledge: Large Dams as an Anatopism in South Asia,’’ Baghel analyzes the logic of large dams, taking into account geographic, political, and sociological considerations. He concludes that large dams are fundamentally in conflict with local conditions. To illustrate his argument, he refers to the fact that hydrological models for dam engineering are based on the hydrological experiences of even-flowing perennial rivers in northern and central Europe and the eastern United States. Accordingly, they are based on annual stream flow and rainfall averages rather than seasonal data, although seasonal data would be more suitable for South Asia’s climate, which is characterized by monsoons and seasonal aridity. Baghel uses this and other examples to challenge the ‘‘universal replicability’’ (p 24) of dams and the undifferentiated treatment of conditions that are not applicable to South Asia. He concludes that, rather than discussing whether dams are good or bad, differentiations of space and time need to be acknowledged to assess whether large dams are appropriate for particular geographic locations and timescales. Several of the chapters discuss the perceived mismatch between bottom-up, local knowledge and traditional water management practices versus top-down, nationally driven engineering approaches. In Chapter 4, ‘‘Filling Multipurpose Reservoirs with Politics: Displacing the Modern Large Dam in India,’’ D’Souza concludes that the ‘‘ideology of supplyside hydrology’’ for addressing water scarcity was used as a justification for engineering large dams, rather than working with local water conservation efforts and indigenous water knowledge traditions (p 70). In Chapter 7, ‘‘Rivers, Dams and Landscapes: Engaging with the Modern on Contested Grounds,’’ Werner discusses competing visions of development and the ideologies associated with them. She concludes that local technology, local infrastructure, and indigenous knowledge can offer an important additional approach to evaluating large dam projects beyond cost–benefit analysis. Erlewein, in Chapter 8, writes on ‘‘The Promotion of Dams Through the Clean Development Mechanism: Between Sustainable Climate Protection and Carbon Colonialism’’ and questions the ability of large dams to contribute to climate change mitigation and sustainable development. He rejects the categoric ‘‘carboncolonialist’’ claims for all dams registered with the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and he differentiates the dams according to their ability to prove their contribution to sustainable development, greenhouse gas emission reduction, and additionality. The chapter concludes by suggesting a reform of the CDM: Large dams should not be funded, and sustainability standards need to be binding under the CDM. While these discussions are embedded in the understanding that the CDM should benefit poor countries, the chapter omits the fact that it is the emerging economies of the global South that have taken the lead in dam building in recent years, and that most CDM-registered dam projects are found in China, India, and Brazil. The CDM is therefore only used as a mechanism for levering further funding domestically in these countries. Moreover, the CDM represents only a small share of the installed hydropower capacity in the global South. The book is generally rich in material from India and South Asia, whereas China is represented only in Chapter 3 by Seeger. Yet China is today’s global leader in dam building, both domestically and overseas, in terms of the number and size of dams MountainMedia Mountain Research and Development (MRD) An international, peer-reviewed open access journal published by the International Mountain Society (IMS) www.mrd-journal.org

Issues at the interface of disaster risk management and low-carbon development

Effectively managing disaster risks is a critical tool for adapting to the impacts of climate change. However, climate change mitigation and low-carbon development have often been overlooked in disaster risk management (DRM) research, policy and practice. This article explores the links between DRM and low-carbon development and thereby sheds light on a new and emerging research and development agenda. Taking carbon considerations into account for DRM and post-disaster reconstruction can contribute to laying the foundations for low-carbon development and the benefits it can bring. It can also provide an opportunity to combine adaptation and mitigation efforts. The article elaborates the carbon implications of DRM interventions and post-disaster reconstruction practices, drawing on case studies from flood risk reduction, coastal protection, drought risk reduction, post-disaster housing and energy supply reconstruction. Finally, the article makes suggestions about how the carbon implications of DRM measures could be accounted for in a coherent manner. Suggestions include calculating the carbon emissions from DRM and post-disaster interventions as part of globally standardized environmental impact assessments and improving the linkages between ministries of environment, energy and climate, and those ministries that deal with disasters.

Prospects, Politics, and Practices of Solar Energy Innovation in China:

This article examines the prospects of, and politics and practices around, solar energy in China. It examines two different solar energy technologies, namely, solar photovoltaic (PV) and solar water heaters (SWHs), to understand how different pathways for low-carbon innovation are supported and constrained by (the lack of) political support at the national and local level, the interactions between state and nonstate actors, as well as how they relate to changing practices among consumers. This article also discusses obstacles and trade-offs. We find two very different approaches to solar energy. The solar PV industry in China is experiencing increased domestic growth, after many years of being mainly export-oriented. Prices declined rapidly in recent years, and solar PV also enjoys much political and financial support from the central government and local governments. However, there are high bureaucratic and technical hurdles to get grid connected and access the feed-in-tariff, particularly for individual users. SWHs on the other side are a “homegrown” Chinese technology that is ubiquitous in China, particularly in rural areas; that is easy to install and use; and that has developed from the grassroots levels to mass products with relatively little government support. Although being largely neglected by high-level discussions and plans, SWHs could contribute much to low-carbon transitions that are driven at the local level in China.