Creating compatibility between expansion of Hydropower and Conservation of Biodiversity: A comparative analysis between the stand taken by Portugal and Norway

Abstract

Expansion of renewable energy is at the very centre of the European Green Deal. In every possible energy mix policy in the EU, it has been found that hydropower is and will continue to remain as an integral part of it. However, on the path of reaching for carbon-neutrality, the EU right now settled with this hydropower as an unavoidable renewable energy source which is not completely green. It's already known effect on the environment, river ecology and protected sites has been a matter of environmental protest from activists. Because combat against climate change is not only confined within the development of renewable energy. Rather conservation of biodiversity and recovery of EU’s biodiversity loss throughout the last decades is another crucial pillar of sustainable development and also green deal.

However, with a nationally binding target for renewable energy for each member state through RED I, the EU-countries achieved a new drive and incentive for extending their renewable energy programme. Not surprisingly, hydropower as a leading means of renewable energy throughout Europe created unprecedented pressure on the already vulnerable river ecology. The ‘hydropower tsunami’ all over the EU, bringing out frequent clashes between renewable energy expansion and biodiversity conservation of the concerned area.

EU legal regime on biodiversity conservation affords somewhat sufficient protection against this incessant hydropower expansion regardless of its effect on environment, nature and protected species. However, protection given in paper for biodiversity are very often downright ignored in many cases when conservation remains at odds with development of hydropower. This attitude towards biodiversity conservation is proved by the existence of hydropower in the EU’s protected site in alarming quantities. One of the most impressive contributions in generating a ‘balanced trade-off’ between hydropower and biodiversity is coming out of public participation in the EIA process of a concerned project. Derogation rules provided in the nature directives actually work as a safety net for the environment against controversial hydropower projects if implemented accurately and sincerely.

It is also time to evaluate hydropower and its position in the renewable energy mix in light of its environmental impact. As long as the renewable energy development in the EU is largely dependent on hydropower, nothing could be more important to pursue it with as much precaution and impact mitigation measures as possible. The EU's robust legal regime on biodiversity often becomes futile at the national level if the government is not committed to the cause. The Sabor Dam incident of Portugal is such proof of shoddy implementation of the biodiversity laws, even abuse of derogation rule. In the thesis, the ‘zone of compatibility’ has been tried to find out within the existing legal recourse.