Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates China’s role as the world’s largest builder and investor of large dams, using a ‘political ecology of the Asian drivers’ perspective and drawing on case studies from Southeast Asia and West Africa.

Paper long abstract:

Hydropower development is currently experiencing a global renaissance, led by Chinese dam-builders and financiers. Large dams are a key energy priority in many low and middle income countries around the globe and they are considered a means to increase energy access, achieve development goals and contribute to climate change mitigation. However large hydropower dam projects have devastating, irreversible environmental impacts and can also negatively impact people's livelihoods and lives by reducing access to local natural resources such as land, water and food, as well as involving involuntary resettlement. This paper investigates China's role as the world's largest builder and investor of large dams, using a 'political ecology of the Asian drivers' perspective. It addresses the role Chinese actors play in large dam-building as well as the social, environmental, economic and political implications by drawing on four selected case studies from Asia and Africa, namely the Kamchay dam in Cambodia, the Bakun dam in Malaysia, the Bui dam in Ghana and the Zamafara dam in Nigeria. The paper concludes first that while the role of Chinese dam builders and the power they have is important, the role of national host governments is often determining how large dams and their environmental and social impacts are being governed and managed, second, the paper indicates that the divergence between national priorities of energy production and local development needs can result in the unequal distribution of costs and benefits between the national and local scales, third, the paper makes recommendations for more sustainable hydropower development.