The promotion of dams through the clean development mechanism: between sustainable climate protection and carbon colonialism

Abstract

The current discussion about global warming and the possibility to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through hydropower has given a new turn to the debate about dams, resulting in the re-evaluation of this otherwise disputed technology. This trend materialises in the massive financial support that the United Nations’ carbon-offsetting scheme Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) mobilises for the construction of new hydropower plants in developing countries. As defined in the Kyoto Protocol, CDM projects are supposed to avoid greenhouse gas emissions while simultaneously contributing to sustainable development. The objective of this chapter is to analyse to what extent carbon-offsetting dams are able to live up to this ‘win-win’ expectation. By identifying considerable challenges and constraints, it is argued that the capability of large hydropower projects to contribute to climate protection and to sustainable development is questionable. Given the controversial effects large dams may have on the local level, it is discussed in which respect carbon-offsetting dams constitute a form of ‘carbon colonialism’ that results in the exacerbation of one of the most problematic aspects of global warming: the asymmetries of causation and burden-sharing.