Harmful Hydropower Projects Lose Ground
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Government
Unsustainable Small Hydropower Will No Longer Get Excessive State Aid After Actions of WWF and Its Supporters in Romania and Ukraine
Civil society involvement led to the exclusion of Romanian small hydropower projects from EU funding until 2020. The new partnership agreement between Romania and the European Commission and the Operational Programme Large Infrastructure, which deals with investments in transport, environment, energy and climate change, do not support small hydropower.
As a result, the authorities temporarily suspended the approval process and created a joint working group of government and civil society experts to develop a set of additional criteria for the development of hydropower. The government also promised to assign "no-go" areas at national level, where small hydropower could not be built or would be very restricted.
WWF-Romania, in collaboration with other NGOs, has already submitted a proposal for the criteria but the process is stuck at the moment.
Meanwhile, the national parliament of Ukraine adopted a law that abolished the preferential taxes of small renewable energy producers. The large tax breaks and the expensive "green" tariff allowed some businesses to violate environmental regulations in protected areas and in the last naturally flowing rivers.
The developers could easily pay off fines with their huge profits and continue their destructive activities. In particular, such cases were recorded in the Verkhovynskyi County (rayion) (Goloshynska hydropower plant) and in Khustskyi County (Nizhniy Bystryi hydropower plant).
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