Empowering Hydropower: Building Resilience for a Sustainable Future
Hydropower, Dam, Infrastructure, Resilience This session explored the critical issue of disaster risk management within the hydropower sector. Through expert insights and case studies from Nepal, Nigeria, and Ukraine, attendees gained an understanding of the unique challenges posed by natural hazards, climate change, and conflicts and learn strategies to assess and manage these risks. By emphasizing integrated approaches for hydropower cascade systems, the session fostered dialogue on how to ensure the sustainability and long-term viability of hydropower projects in the face of escalating risks.
The Power of Hydropower is immense. It combines one of nature’s five elements—water—which has existed for perhaps more than 4 billion years, and human technological innovation. Today, hydropower is the world’s largest renewable energy source, and according to the International Hydropower Association, it supplies 16 percent of global electricity demand. Recent estimates indicate that 1,300 gigawatts of new hydropower capacity will be needed by 2050 to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius set by the Paris Agreement. All over the world, countries have committed to hydropower to supply affordable energy with net-zero emissions by 2050. However, if not properly designed, hydropower projects could have tremendous negative impacts on local communities and the environment. And the large investments countries are making in hydropower could be completely lost. This seriously compromises countries’ development goals and our global dream of a world free of poverty on a livable planet. Hydropower projects encompass risks from and to dams. We discussed case studies from Nepal, Nigeria, and Ukraine in the session. We heard from four specialists about methods to assess these risks, including their cascading effects and solutions to build hydropower resilience for a sustainable future. Enhancing resilience in the hydropower sector involves four key factors: (1)Technical and financial solutions to manage the human, environmental, and financial risks; (2) Effective policies for setting the direction and priorities, facilitating the integration of resilience into broader infrastructure plans; (3) Institutional capacity to strengthen the ability of institutions to plan and execute resilience programs and to adapt and respond to changing circumstances and emerging risks; and (4) Convening power, or the ability to bring together different stakeholders, to mobilize support and commitment from policymakers, private sector, development partners, and the public. Together, these elements, like water, are essential for empowering hydropower.
Organized by: Fukushima University and World Bank
