Climate Change and Rivers

River-wrecking dams are the wrong choice for a warming world. International Rivers works on four key areas where climate change, dams and rivers intersect. For an in-depth look at each of these areas, click on the links below or visit our Publications page.

Adapting to a warming world

Some of the worst impacts of climate change on both people and ecosystems will be felt through its impacts on water. Some areas will become much drier, some wetter. More extreme floods will threaten the safety of dams, and unprecedented droughts will drastically reduce the hydropower and water supply services that dams are built to provide. Minimizing the impacts of climate change will require diversifying away from dependence on big dams for electricity generation and flood control. Water security in a warming world will require major improvements in water-use efficiency and in techniques such as rainwater harvesting and improved groundwater management and use.

Reservoir emissions

Scientific studies indicate that dams and reservoirs are globally significant sources of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and, in particular, methane. The latest estimate published in a peer-review journal is that dams and reservoirs are responsible for almost a quarter of all human-caused methane emissions. This 104 million tonnes of dam methane equals 4-5% of all human-caused warming.
 

Keeping dams out of carbon schemes

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is the Kyoto Protocol’s main carbon offsetting program. It is intended to lower developed countries’ costs of reducing their greenhouse gas emissions through the purchase of "carbon credits" from projects in developing countries. It is also supposed to promote “sustainable development.” The CDM is failing badly on both counts. International Rivers seeks to prevent big hydro developers from exploiting the CDM’s flaws, to fix the CDM's worst loopholes, to exclude the CDM and reduce the amount of offsets in US climate legislation, and to promote better mechanisms for supporting decarbonization. View Video.

Promoting standards for climate finance

International financial institutions are increasingly turning to climate finance as a way to fund the huge costs of large dams.  International Rivers monitors climate-earmarked funds such as the Green Climate Fund to prevent large dams from entering project pipelines, promotes the use of strong social and environmental standards and technical benchmarks, and pushes climate finance away from a business-as-usual approach towards more resilient water and energy solutions.