The document summarizes the evolution of the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol from 2000 to 2008-2010. It began with the World Commission on Dams report and IHA Sustainability Guidelines in 2000. From 2008-2010 a multi-stakeholder forum refined the protocol. The forum included members from developing countries, developed countries, the finance sector, hydropower sector, and NGOs focused on environmental and social aspects. The protocol assesses sustainability across topics using a 1-5 scoring system.
1. Evolution of the Protocol 2000 World Commission on Dams Final Report IHA Sustainability Guidelines Initial Sustainability Assessment Protocol 2008-10 Multi-stakeholder Forum refines the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol
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3. Mr Zhou Shichun, Senior Engineer, China Hydropower Engineering Consulting Group Co., PR China
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5. Prof Gudni A Johannesson, Director General, National Energy Authority, Iceland
Emphasise that all elements of sustainability are covered: environmental, social, economic, technical.
Each Protocol topic has a starting statement (what the topic is all about), then a series of scoring statements which describe what basic good practice is, and then what proven best practice is. Using these statements and the assessment guidance, the assessor comes to a judgement on the score.
Emphasise that it’s not about aggregating the scores into a single figure, or a ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ result, but a way to clearly see how a project scores on a wide variety of topics and where the project has strengths and where it has weaknesses.