Abstract
Hydropower activities must increasingly be evaluated from a sustainable development perspective. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the principle frequently applied to evaluate corporate contributions in this regard, though there exists no conceptual and theoretical basis that is common to the various approaches. With the present work, we fill this gap and provide a generic model that formally integrates the corporate and societal perspectives of hydropower activities within a welfare-economic framework that encompasses both externalities and distributional concerns. Building on this background and focusing on the current situation in Switzerland, the water tower of Western Europe, we particularly address the issues of water rights, resource rents and governance. This is crucial when analyzing investment projects of hydropower companies with shared private and public ownership; i.e., if external stakeholders are also sensitive shareholders who grant, at the same time, the company the right to operate. Altogether, this contribution shall support better informed decision making on both corporate and policy levels, especially regarding new and retrofitting investments in hydropower when social concerns are at stake.
Highlights
As a clean and renewable source of energy, hydropower (HP) is expected to play a key role in coping with the goals of climate policy and phasing-out nuclear energy, especially in mountain areas
We fill this gap and provide a generic model that formally integrates the corporate and societal perspectives of hydropower activities within a welfare-economic framework that encompasses both externalities and distributional concerns. Building on this background and focusing on the current situation in Switzerland, the water tower of Western Europe, we address the issues of water rights, resource rents and governance
The renewal and reversion of water concessions, respectively, as well as the design of future water fees and taxes may induce a new era of HP utilization [14,56,72,73,74], bring about new institutional settings and need new forms of governance
Summary
As a clean and renewable source of energy, hydropower (HP) is expected to play a key role in coping with the goals of climate policy and phasing-out nuclear energy, especially in mountain areas. It can entail substantial impacts on the environment, economy and society, and on sustainable development (SD). HP projects and operations must increasingly be evaluated from an SD perspective. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the principle frequently applied in this regard. It is generally defined as the business world’s commitment and contribution to sustainable development [1,2]. CSR is understood as “the way firms integrate their values, culture, decision making, strategy and operations in a transparent and accountable manner” [3] 5) and as a program where firms “decide voluntarily to contribute to a better society and cleaner environment” [4] CSR is understood as “the way firms integrate their values, culture, decision making, strategy and operations in a transparent and accountable manner” [3] (p. 5) and as a program where firms “decide voluntarily to contribute to a better society and cleaner environment” [4] (p. 5)
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