Ms. Janet West
Head of Division
OECD Export Credit Secretariat
2, rue André Pascal
F-75775 Paris Cedex 16
France
Fax: +33 1 44 30 61 58
E-Mail: Janet.west@oecd.org
Dear Ms. West,
I am writing to express my concern at the possibility that export credit
agencies may soon be allowed to offer preferential financing terms to large
dam projects. I would ask that you pass my concerns on to Participants
to the Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits during your meetings
in Paris this coming week.
Many hydropower projects have massive and irreversible social and environmental
impacts - including the extinction of fish species, the sedimentation of
reservoirs, the erosion of riverbanks and coastlines, the submergence of
valuable floodplains, and the emission of methane. The climate impact of
methane emissions from large dam reservoirs, especially in the tropics,
can actually exceed those of natural gas plants generating equivalent amounts
of energy. The World Commission on Dams report notes that large dams have
displaced 40-80 million people, and have “led to the impoverishment and
suffering of millions”. Most large dam projects have not succeeded in re-establishing
the economic livelihoods of the communities that they displaced. They are
among the most environmentally and socially destructive sources of energy.
I ask that Participants not approve the granting of preferential financial
terms for large hydropower projects and that preference be given instead
to real alternative and renewable energy sources rather than to large dams,
nuclear power and fossil fuel plants.
Sincerely,
