Articles | Volume 6, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-6-195-2015
© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Special issue:
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-6-195-2015
© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Research article
| 
15 Apr 2015
Research article |
| 15 Apr 2015
Framing hydropower as green energy: assessing drivers, risks and tensions in the Eastern Himalayas
R. Ahlers
Independent researcher, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
J. Budds
School of International Development, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
Water Resources Management, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands
V. Merme
Independent researcher, The Hague, the Netherlands
M. Zwarteveen
Integrated Water Systems and Governance, UNESCO-IHE, Governance and Inclusive Development, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Water Resources Management, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands
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51 citations as recorded by crossref.
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- Are Himalayan ecosystems facing hidden collapse? Assessing the drivers and impacts of change to aid conservation, restoration and conflict resolution challenges S. Dhyani 10.1007/s10531-023-02692-x
- The Impacts of Hydropower Dams in the Mekong River Basin: A Review A. Soukhaphon et al. 10.3390/w13030265
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- Governing the transition to renewable energy: A review of impacts and policy issues in the small hydropower boom S. Kelly-Richards et al. 10.1016/j.enpol.2016.11.035
- Where walls of power meet the wall of money: Hydropower in the age of financialization R. Ahlers 10.1002/sd.1994
- Greening small hydropower: A brief review C. Shiji et al. 10.1016/j.esr.2021.100676
- Dammed and diversionary: The multi‐dimensional framing of Brazil's Belo Monte dam E. Atkins 10.1111/sjtg.12206
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- The Geomorphic Impact of Outburst Floods: Integrating Observations and Numerical Simulations of the 2000 Yigong Flood, Eastern Himalaya M. Turzewski et al. 10.1029/2018JF004778
- Re-Linking Governance of Energy with Livelihoods and Irrigation in Uttarakhand, India S. Buechler et al. 10.3390/w8100437
48 citations as recorded by crossref.
- Achieving water security in rural Indian Himalayas: A participatory account of challenges and potential solutions S. Sen & A. Kansal 10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.05.132
- Environmental flows: issues and gaps—a critical analysis C. Bhuiyan 10.1007/s11625-022-01092-4
- Timescapes of Himalayan hydropower: Promises, project life cycles, and precarities A. Lord et al. 10.1002/wat2.1469
- Sacrificing the local to support the national: Politics, sustainability, and governance in Nepal’s hydropower paradox A. Crootof et al. 10.1016/j.erss.2021.102206
- The ‘Double-Exposure’ of Riverine Communities in Northeast India to Dams and Climate Change C. Rampini 10.2139/ssrn.4175864
- International water law and hydropolitics: an enquiry into the water conflict between India and Nepal H. Vasani 10.1080/02508060.2023.2176595
- Hydropower in the Himalayan Hazardscape: Strategic Ignorance and the Production of Unequal Risk A. Huber 10.3390/w11030414
- To dam or not to dam in an age of anthropocene: Insights from a genealogy of media discourses S. Flaminio et al. 10.1016/j.ancene.2021.100312
- Glacial change and hydrological implications in the Himalaya and Karakoram Y. Nie et al. 10.1038/s43017-020-00124-w
- More dams, more violence? A global analysis on resistances and repression around conflictive dams through co-produced knowledge D. Del Bene et al. 10.1007/s11625-018-0558-1
- A river runs through it? Exploring the contestation of Environmental Impact Assessment procedures for small hydropower projects M. Niță et al. 10.1016/j.erss.2023.102943
- Disputing the ‘National Interest’: The Depoliticization and Repoliticization of the Belo Monte Dam, Brazil E. Atkins 10.3390/w11010103
- Power production and environmental opinions – Environmentally motivated resistance to wind power in Sweden J. Anshelm & H. Simon 10.1016/j.rser.2015.12.211
- Ecología política de las hidroeléctricas J. Arias-Henao & D. Roca-Servat 10.11144/Javeriana.cdr19.epha
- News discourse and readers’ comments: Expanding the range of citizenship positions? Z. Pinto-Coelho et al. 10.1177/1464884917707595
- Representations of dams: infrastructures, concessions and controversies S. Flaminio 10.1051/lhb/2020010
- Hydro-energy cooperation in South Asia: Prospects for transboundary energy and water security U. Saklani et al. 10.1016/j.envsci.2020.07.013
- Renewable Electricity Production in Mountain Regions: Toward a People-Centered Energy Transition Agenda C. Scott et al. 10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-21-00062
- Transboundary ‘hydro‐hegemony’: 10 years later J. Warner et al. 10.1002/wat2.1242
- Hydropower, Anti-Politics, and the Opening of New Political Spaces in the Eastern Himalayas A. Huber & D. Joshi 10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.06.006
- Are Himalayan ecosystems facing hidden collapse? Assessing the drivers and impacts of change to aid conservation, restoration and conflict resolution challenges S. Dhyani 10.1007/s10531-023-02692-x
- The Impacts of Hydropower Dams in the Mekong River Basin: A Review A. Soukhaphon et al. 10.3390/w13030265
- Mountains of Our Future Earth: Defining Priorities for Mountain Research—A Synthesis From the 2015 Perth III Conference E. Gleeson et al. 10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-16-00094.1
- The Consensual Politics of Development: A Case Study of Hydropower Development in the Eastern Himalayan Region of India D. Joshi et al. 10.53037/na.v5i1.9
- Watered down? Civil society organizations and hydropower development in the Darjeeling and Sikkim regions, Eastern Himalaya: A comparative study D. Joshi et al. 10.1080/14693062.2018.1557035
- Mapping research on hydropower and sustainability in the Brazilian Amazon: advances, gaps in knowledge and future directions S. Athayde et al. 10.1016/j.cosust.2019.06.004
- Understanding the Hydropower and Potential Climate Change Impact on the Himalayan River Regimes—A Study of Local Perceptions and Responses from Himachal Pradesh, India N. Sahu et al. 10.3390/w12102739
- Evaluating the sustainability of a hydropower project in the Himalayas: A case study for resolving legal disputes in tribunals A. Rana et al. 10.1016/j.renene.2021.04.060
- Climate and energy justice along the Brahmaputra river in Northeast India C. Rampini 10.1177/25148486211032042
- Regional electricity trade for hydropower development in South Asia G. Timilsina 10.1080/07900627.2018.1515065
- Dam stories: Using narrative analysis to understand the debate over water security and the Waimea Community Dam N. Lanari & J. Overton 10.1111/nzg.12329
- Pastoralism in South Asia: Contemporary stresses and adaptations of Himalayan pastoralists R. Singh & C. Kerven 10.1186/s13570-023-00283-7
- Mitigation or Myth? Impacts of Hydropower Development and Compensatory Afforestation on forest ecosystems in the high Himalayas M. Asher & P. Bhandari 10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.105041
- Biopolítica e hidropoder del agua potable en América Latina: Recursos conceptuales para comprender la hidrohegemonía en América Latina C. Rojas Rosales 10.15366/relacionesinternacionales2020.45.005
- Citizens of a hydropower nation: Territory and agency at the frontiers of hydropower development in Nepal A. Lord 10.1002/sea2.12051
- What Makes a Megaproject? G. Gutierrez et al. 10.3167/ares.2019.100107
- South-South cooperation: Brazilian soy diplomacy looking East? J. Warner 10.1007/s12571-015-0505-2
- Is the hydropower boom actually taking place? A case study of a South East European country, Bosnia and Herzegovina Ö. Dogmus & J. Nielsen 10.1016/j.rser.2019.04.077
- Conflicting securities: contributions to a critical research agenda on climate security C. Lamain 10.1080/14747731.2022.2057093
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- The future of hydropower development in Nepal: Views from the private sector C. Schulz & U. Saklani 10.1016/j.renene.2021.07.138
- Financialization, water governance, and uneven development R. Ahlers & V. Merme 10.1002/wat2.1166
- Governing the transition to renewable energy: A review of impacts and policy issues in the small hydropower boom S. Kelly-Richards et al. 10.1016/j.enpol.2016.11.035
- Where walls of power meet the wall of money: Hydropower in the age of financialization R. Ahlers 10.1002/sd.1994
- Greening small hydropower: A brief review C. Shiji et al. 10.1016/j.esr.2021.100676
- Dammed and diversionary: The multi‐dimensional framing of Brazil's Belo Monte dam E. Atkins 10.1111/sjtg.12206
- We Have Eaten the Rivers: The Past, Present, and Unsustainable Future of Hydroelectricity in Vietnam G. Sasges & A. Ziegler 10.3390/su15118969
- Assessing the vulnerability of protected areas in the eastern Himalayas based on their biological, anthropogenic, and environmental aspects S. Banerjee et al. 10.1016/j.tfp.2022.100228
3 citations as recorded by crossref.
- Like water for justice D. Joshi 10.1016/j.geoforum.2015.02.020
- The Geomorphic Impact of Outburst Floods: Integrating Observations and Numerical Simulations of the 2000 Yigong Flood, Eastern Himalaya M. Turzewski et al. 10.1029/2018JF004778
- Re-Linking Governance of Energy with Livelihoods and Irrigation in Uttarakhand, India S. Buechler et al. 10.3390/w8100437
Saved (final revised paper)
Latest update: 24 Apr 2024
Short summary
Ambitious hydropower plans in the Eastern Himalayas prominently involve the private finance sector. We question the framing of hydropower as green energy, interrogate its links with climate change, and examine its potential for investment and capital accumulation and show a number of serious contradictions. Impacts cannot be simply predicted, controlled or mitigated. More focus on political economic drivers and geo-ecological uncertainties infused with localized understandings is sorely needed.
Ambitious hydropower plans in the Eastern Himalayas prominently involve the private finance...
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