Private equity, public affair: Hydropower financing in the Mekong Basin

Merme, Vincent; Ahlers, Rhodante; Gupta, Joyeeta

doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.11.007

Cited by 79 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Second, there are plans for expansion of irrigation schemes and many hydropower projects (MRC 2016). Hydropower development, in tributaries and the main stem, results in unequal distribution of costs and benefits (Merme et al 2013). Third, urbanization and economic development are causing declining water quality and increasing irrigation demand.…”

Section: The Mekong River Basin Water Resources and Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptation to climate change in the Mekong River Basin: introduction to the special issue

Evers

Pathirana

2018

Climatic Change

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Section: The Mekong River Basin Water Resources and Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptation to climate change in the Mekong River Basin: introduction to the special issue

Evers

Pathirana

2018

Climatic Change

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“…Thus, the TTT appears to investors as a low-risk, government-backed and inflation-protected investment. As Merme et al (2014) and Ahlers and Merme (2016) argue, it is far easier to attract institutional investors for such projects than it would be to bring about a coalition of investors for the kind of piecemeal -albeit far more integrated -solution proposed by those favouring SuDS.…”

Section: Financialising Infrastructurementioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating what and for whom? Financialisation and the Thames Tideway Tunnel

Loftus

March

2017

Urban Studies

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The Thames Tideway Tunnel (TTT), often referred to as the Thames super sewer, is currently one of the largest infrastructure projects underway in any European city. Costing an estimated £4.2 billion, the sewer connects London's Victorian sewerage network with the Thames Wastewater Treatment Works at Beckton. The latter facility has been described as the UK's Water-Energy-Food nexus poster child, for its combination of desalination facilities, green energy generation and wastewater treatment. While physically connected to the Beckton plant, the TTT is, paradoxically, designed with an apparent disregard for the water-energy nexus. If the Beckton plant represents a nexus-based vision of integration -what Macrorie and Marvin (2016) refer to as Mode 2 Urban Integration -the TTT harks back to a view of urban integration carried from the Victorian era through to the present moment. What unites the two projects, and what undergirds the transformation of the hydrosocial cycle, is a financial model more focused on the extraction of rents from Thames Water's consumers. Thames Water's dismissal of genuinely integrated alternatives appears guided more by the financialisation of the urban integrated ideal than by what is needed to respond to London's broader environmental needs. Contesting the project, therefore, will involve slicing through the various claims to integration, going beyond the many proposals for evidence-based alternatives, and capturing the transformations being wrought by finance's entry into infrastructure provision.

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“…Chinese SOEs' hydropower investments and activities are part of an increasing trend for both individual state and private sector led infrastructure financing and development that is expected to reach as much as four trillion dollars by 2017 [66][67][68]. The Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank and the Silk Road Fund, for example, will soon bring an additional $140 billion dollars of investment for development, a large proportion of which will be aimed at hydropower.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chinese State-Owned Enterprise Investment in Mekong Hydropower: Political and Economic Drivers and Their Implications across the Water, Energy, Food Nexus

Matthews¹,

Motta

2015

Water

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Over the last decade, Chinese State-Owned Enterprises have emerged as among the most active investors in Mekong Basin hydropower development. This paper uses a political economy analysis to examine the forces that drive Chinese State-Owned Enterprises to invest in hydropower in the Mekong Basin. We focus our analysis on the Lancang (Upper Mekong River) in China and in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), with an emphasis on Cambodia. The analysis reveals how powerful political and economic forces from within China and the GMS influence the pace, location and scale of investments in hydropower. These forces include foreign exchange reserves, trade packages and foreign direct investment, and political alliances. Combining the political economy and nexus approaches, we conclude that although policies from China recognize interconnections across the nexus, political and economic forces craft narratives that downplay or disregard these nexus interconnections and trade-offs. This in turn, influences how trade-offs and interconnections in hydropower development are managed and recognized in both local and transboundary contexts, thereby, creating potentially significant negative impacts on livelihoods, food security and the environment.

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Private equity, public affair: Hydropower financing in the Mekong Basin

Cited by 79 publications

References 36 publications

Adaptation to climate change in the Mekong River Basin: introduction to the special issue

Adaptation to climate change in the Mekong River Basin: introduction to the special issue

Integrating what and for whom? Financialisation and the Thames Tideway Tunnel

Chinese State-Owned Enterprise Investment in Mekong Hydropower: Political and Economic Drivers and Their Implications across the Water, Energy, Food Nexus

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