Publications

November 2022              by Open Hydro              Guideline 

Hydropower secures only 2.5% of climate-aligned finance even though it is the largest renewable energy generator. Open Hydro’s guideline tackles this with the first industry-specific guidance to improve reporting towards investors in hydropower. It was co-developed with hydropower experts from 10 top electric utilities and financial institutions and reviewed by the Task Force on Climate-related Disclosures (TCFD), the GHG Protocol and the World Benchmarking Alliance.
It is the first of its kind and much needed in the hydropower industry. It gives hydropower operators a framework by which they can report their emissions that have been created specifically for the industry. Frameworks for carbon accounting have already been published. Still, they are not specific to hydropower, which is more complex due to geography, age, construction materials, sediment flow and many more individual factors to each hydropower asset.

September 2021              by Open Hydro              White paper 

After five years of the Paris Agreement, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on leaders to declare a State of Climate Emergency until reaching carbon neutrality. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states global emissions must be halved by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050 to avoid climate catastrophe.

This white paper analyses the trends around climate risk disclosure worldwide, covering the challenges and opportunities for hydropower. It studies and compares TCFD recommendations with international taxonomies and finds an emerging need for standardised metrics and industry-specific reporting standards. It also presents the insights gained from a survey to understand the impacts of climate resilience and adaptation reporting to unlock climate finance for hydropower assets. To conclude, it suggests ways forward for downscaling commonly-agreed climate-related reporting to the hydropower-specific project level.

October 2021                by Open Hydro                  White paper

With the G7 agreeing to implement mandatory disclosure aligned with TCFD recommendations, these are turning from a voluntary approach to the main regulatory response to disclose climate-related risks and opportunities. Given the upcoming mandatory requirements, the hydropower sector needs to prepare as 513 GW of hydropower capacity is potentially subject to mandatory climate-related disclosure.

However, with 198 GW, electric utilities supporting TCFD recommendations represent only 15% of the hydropower installed capacity worldwide, reaching 1,330 GW in 2020. Still, they represent over 40% of the hydropower installed capacity in Europe. To assist the hydropower sector with specific recommendations and standardised metrics to ensure the information is relevant and valuable for financial decision-making, Open Hydro is leading to streamlining climate reporting.