Payal Parekh's picture
Payal Parekh
Climate Scientist
I put my scientific training into action as a weapon in the struggle against destructive river projects. Less geeky interests include rock climbing, trekking and bicycling in the vicinity of breathtaking rivers (and taking a dip in them afterward), reading good fiction, making guerilla art and exploring hidden spaces.

Subscribe to this blog
Email the author
Categories

learn more about:

User login

Login/Register
Home › Global Warming › Carbon Offsets

AES and the CDM

Thu, 01/14/2010 - 8:25pm

(Florencio Quintero)(Florencio Quintero)Yet again a project by AES, one of the world's largest power companies, didn't manage to make it past the validation stage in the CDM approval process. International Rivers is very pleased, as this project, the Changuinola Dam in Panama, is particularly damaging.  The project is located in the buffer zone for the La Amistad UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and has resulted in the forcible displacement of 1,000 Ngobe people. If this project would have been registered, it would have legitimized a project rife with social and environmental abuses. The fact that this project is being built without receiving any income from the CDM shows that it is clearly not additional  (see the extensive comments submitted to the CDM from International Rivers and  others).

Two earlier hydro projects submitted to the CDM by AES Panama, Bayano expansion and Esti were also non-additional and failed to get approval by the CDM. AES's  attempt to get CDM credits for its notorious Bujagali Dam in Uganda  also floundered (AES later pulled out of the dam, but construction is now proceeding with another developer – and without CDM approval).

It could of course be argued that the failure of AES’s projects to get CDM validation shows that the system is working, because non-additional projects are getting rejected. But a more realistic interpretation is that dams that attract a lot of attention are likely to get turned down, whereas the hundreds of internationally obscure, but non-additional, dams in China are likely to get approved. AES has got involved in particularly controversial dams that have attracted a lot of controversy, and so there were a number of informed and motivated observers wanting to submit comments to the CDM on the projects.

But if the CDM wants to claim that the AES dams are an anomaly, and that most dams submitted are indeed additional, surely AES should be sanctioned for repeatedly wasting the CDM’s time and money.While the CDM Executive Board has been scrutinizing validators more closely (which of course we support!), we believe it should develop a 'no-submit' list of project developers with a record of submitting blatantly non-additional projects. These developers, including AES, would be are banned from submitting any further projects for the CDM.

Comments

Mon, 01/25/2010 - 12:31pm — Katy Yan

Chan 75 and La Amistad Bioreserve update

Here is an update from our friends at Alianza para la Conservacion y el Desarrollo (ACD):

In spite of important achievements like this, the Government of Panama and the private corporations involved in the destruction of La Amistad have continued disregarding environmental regulations, harassing, blackmailing and intimidating indigenous peoples. As a matter of fact, human rights violations against indigenous peoples in Panama have increased dramatically during the last three months (click here to learn more).

As American AES and Colombian EEPPM prepare themselves to clear-cut the forests of the La Amistad Biosphere Reserve with no concern for Panamanian environmental law and international indigenous rights, we urge you to continue collaborating with this struggle for environmental justice in one of the most culturally and biologically diverse places in the world.

For further information about the La Amistad Biosphere Reserve and the legal actions that have been undertaken for the protection of the Ngobe and Naso homelands, you can write to acdpanama[at]gmail[dot]com.