China’s 12th Five-Year Plan for Energy Development, released last January, includes the admirable goal of generating 11.4 percent of energy from renewable sources by 2015. But at least one part of its plan is controversial among environmentalists and civil society advocates: the government’s aim to install 160 GW of new hydropower capacity, raising China’s total hydropower capacity to 290 GW. That would be more installed capacity than in all of Europe combined.
Currently 84 large dams are planned or under construction in southwestern China. The Woodrow Wilson Center’s China Environment Forum has just released an interactive map of the dams, viewable here. At least 70 dam sites are situated in regions that the nonprofit Conservation International has classified as biodiversity hotspots.
One major concern is China’s lousy past record for conducting environmental and social impact assessments for large infrastructure projects, such as the controversial Three Gorges Dam. Unfortunately, there is little evidence that China is learning from its experience.
via China’s Rush to Build Dams Leaves Resettled Communities in Limbo – Businessweek.
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