South–South Technology Transfer of Low‐Carbon Innovation: Large Chinese Hydropower Dams in Cambodia

Frauke Urban,Kim Sour,May Tan‐Mullins,Pich Dara Lonn,Grace Mang,Giuseppina Siciliano

doi:10.1002/sd.1590

Abstract

ABSTRACTLarge dams have been controversially debated for decades due to their large‐scale and often irreversible social and environmental impacts. In the pursuit of low‐carbon energy and climate change mitigation, hydropower is experiencing a new renaissance. At the forefront of this renaissance are Chinese actors as the world's largest hydropower dam‐builders. This paper aims to discuss the role of South–South technology transfer of low‐carbon energy innovation and its opportunities and barriers by using a case study of the first large Chinese‐funded and Chinese‐built dam in Cambodia. Using the Kamchay Dam as an example, the paper finds that technology transfer can only be fully successful when host governments and organizations have the capacity to absorb new technologies. The paper also finds that technology transfer in the dam sector needs to go beyond hardware and focus more on the transfer of expertise, skills and knowledge to enable long‐term sustainable development. © 2016 The Authors Sustainable Development published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Highlights

P OOR COUNTRIES SUCH AS CAMBODIA DEPEND ON TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER FOR OBTAINING ACCESS TO STATE-OF-THE-ART low-carbon technology such as large hydropower dams
The dam is based on a concessional loan from Export Import (Exim) Bank that has to be re-paid with 6% interest rates (International Rivers, 2014)
There are a range of reported environmental and social issues related to declines and loss of livelihoods by the local population, dam construction in a National Park and late environmental impact assessment (EIA) approvals (International Rivers, 2014)

Summary

Introduction

P OOR COUNTRIES SUCH AS CAMBODIA DEPEND ON TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER FOR OBTAINING ACCESS TO STATE-OF-THE-ART low-carbon technology such as large hydropower dams. In the pursuit of low-carbon energy and climate. Chinese actors, such as Sinohydro, a Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE), are the world’s largest dam-builders. While China has a long history of domestic dam-building and water management (Bai and Imura, 2001), recent developments have led to Chinese-funded and Chinese-built overseas dams, in low- and middle-income countries in Asia and Africa (Bosshard, 2009; McDonald et al, 2009; International Rivers, 2012). There are currently more than 330 Chinese-funded and Chinese-built overseas dams, most of them in Southeast Asia (38%) and Africa (26%). The large majority of these are large dams that have been built since 2000 (International Rivers, 2014), at a time when other dam-building nations and organizations, those from the OECD, withdrew from the dam-building industry

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion