Abstract
Hydroelectricity is often considered to be “clean” in view of less carbon emissions especially in comparison to thermal power. However, hydropower is intrusive in the natural environment and has many environmental costs that may outweigh the benefits from reduced carbon emissions. Hydroelectricity projects (HEPs) in India are required to submit a Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) statement in the approval processes. However, the monetary value of the environmental costs is not required to be calculated and not considered in the approval process. Thus, the projects are approved even if the costs are greater than the benefits. The projects are required to submit an “Environment Management Plan” (EMP) to mitigate the adverse environmental impacts. However, the proposals made in the EMP are inadequate to mitigate the impacts and are more cosmetic than real. The calculation of monetary value of environmental impacts is resource intensive. This paper suggests that proxy values can be used to arrive at an estimate. Ignoring the environmental costs because of absence of robust estimates is tantamount to assuming that the environmental costs are zero which is not plausible. Taking the Vishnugad-Pipalkoti HEP as an example, it is shown that the project overestimates the benefits and underestimates the costs. The Cost-Benefit Ratio (CBR) is less than 1 irrespective of whether the environmental benefits and costs are included or excluded. The paper argues that hydropower is not as green as often said to be.
Highlights
BackgroundHydroelectricity is often considered to be “clean” in view of less carbon emissions especially in comparison to thermal power
Public Sector Undertakings are required to submit a Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) to the Public Investment Board (PIB) which vets it and submits it to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) for approval of the public investment
We shall try to arrive at the monetary values of the environmental impacts and show that the amounts allocated in Environment Management Plan (EMP) do not address these impacts at all
Summary
Hydroelectricity is often considered to be “clean” in view of less carbon emissions especially in comparison to thermal power. The hydroelectricity projects (HEPs) in India are required to submit a Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) statement in two statutory approval processes. Public Sector Undertakings are required to submit a CBA to the Public Investment Board (PIB) which vets it and submits it to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) for approval of the public investment. This CBA only calculates the private costs and benefits and entirely ignores the environment costs and benefits. The HEPs are required to submit an Environment Management Plan (EMP) which sets out the measures the HEP will take to protect the environment These measures are theoretically proposed to mitigate the environmental impacts assessed in the EIA. The Project could not be completed on this revised date and, at the time of writing, it was scheduled to be completed in December 2022 at a revised cost of Rs 43.97 Billion
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More From: International Journal of Economy, Energy and Environment
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