It consists in the writing and establishment (in each voluntary country involved in the Europe region preparatory process) of conventions similar to the French « Agreement of commitments for the development of a sustainable hydropower consistent with the restoration of aquatic environments, following the “Grenelle Environment Round Table”».
This convention aims to conciliate the development of hydropower generation with the conservation and restoration of aquatic environments. It provides a set of rules and guidelines to achieve this goal, including but not limited to:
– fostering research in order to strengthen knowledge on species, and impacts of infrastructures
– strengthening the follow-up and monitoring of hydropower infrastructures’ impacts on hydromorphology, hydrology and the functioning of aquatic environments
– upgrading existing infrastructures in order to bring them up to the new regulations (environmental flow, fish passes, etc)
– integrating the cost of reducing environmental impacts in refurbishment and upgrading investments
– conciliating energy and environmental goals & optimizing hydropower generation through call for competition on concessions and common ownership of concessions located in the same basin
– supervising the removal of infrastructures
– identifing hydropower potentials in sectors where environmental stakes are limited, and develop the potential of existing infrastructures
– avoiding as much as possible discontinuities, reduce their impacts, or, in last resort, compensate them. Develop standards for impact assessment.
– simplifying and rationalizing administrative procedures
– establishing and perpetuating dialogue on the convention through a follow-up committee, meeting at least twice yearly.
Such an instrument could usefully be replicated in other countries