Critique of the Xiaoxi World Commission on Dams Compliance Report

The following assessment by International Rivers compares the compliance report for the Xiaoxi project to the Strategic Priorities of the WCD, as well as the German Emissions Trading Authority Guideline for Determination of Compliance with the recommendations of the WCD. We begin with background on the report. We then provide a summary of our main observations and a detailed critique of the report. We end with conclusions and recommendations.

Background:

In the framework of the Kyoto Protocol, European governments and companies in EU countries have committed to reduce their carbon emissions. The Protocol allows them to fulfil some of their reduction commitments by buying emission reduction certificates (CERs) from low emission projects in developing countries.

German-based power utility RWE is one of the biggest CO2 emitters in Europe, with emissions of more than 120 million tonnes of CO2 per year, mainly from coal-fired power plants. RWE has to reduce its carbon emissions, however, at the time of writing of this report, RWE’s reduction commitments for the second trading period of the Kyoto Protocol from 2008 until 2012 were not yet publicly available.

RWE seeks to buy CERs representing average reductions of 442,720 tonnes of CO2 per year from the Xiaoxi hydropower project on the Zishui River in China’s Hunan Province. RWE has commissioned TÜV SÜD, a certification company with accreditation from the CDM, to write a WCD compliance report for the 135 MW Xiaoxi project. EU as well as German law requires hydropower projects above 20MW that want to sell carbon credits in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to comply with the WCD recommendations.