Today on 11 October, we celebrate Global Hydropower Day, which shines a vital light on the power that can be harnessed with sustainable hydropower.

The International Hydropower Association was founded on 16 November 1995 to advance sustainable hydropower's role in meeting the world's water and energy needs. Since then, the hydropower sector has more than doubled in size from 625 GW to around 1,350 GW today. IHA is recognised as the global voice for the sector – but this has not always been easy.  

When I joined IHA back in 2001, the debate about hydropower was very different from where we are today. There was increasing opposition to large dams, which impacted the reputation of the industry for a couple of decades. The publication of a report by the World Commission on Dams in November 2000 was a watershed moment, marking the beginning of a new era for hydropower, with increased focus on ensuring the sustainability of new projects.  

The job of IHA became to change the global narrative about our industry, to improve our practices and to help governments implement policies to enable sustainable hydropower to play its full role in their road to net zero and clean growth.  

Governments, companies, NGOs and banks came together in a sector defining effort to establish what good and best sustainability would look like, with IHA acting as the secretariat – and in 2010 the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol was launched. By 2021, the multi-stakeholder group had elevated it to the Hydropower Sustainability Standard and the sector – represented by IHA – had committed to the bold San José Declaration that going forward, the only acceptable hydropower is sustainable hydropower, plus a no-go commitment in World Heritage Sites and a duty of care in Protected Areas.  

In 2023, we are going further. The Hydropower Sustainability Standard will now be managed by a body independent of the IHA; The Hydropower Sustainability Alliance. We will continue the focus on pumped storage as an enabling water battery to strengthen wind and solar power; we will highlight how to get the most out of existing infrastructure; and at this year’s World Hydropower Congress, we will focus on how water, wind and sun together can support sustainable growth around the world. After four years, I will pass over the IHA Presidency to Malcolm Turnbull, along with the election of a new Chair of IHA.

From a personal perspective, I've thoroughly enjoyed my time with IHA and connected with so many fabulous people and I’m going to miss it. But I am continuing my involvement with the electricity sector – as a Chair and Director of several electricity and renewables focused companies and advising on GW-scale pumped storage developments. I want to especially thank State Power Investment Corporation of China (SPIC) for its support of my Presidency.

But there’s still a long way to go, and Global Hydropower Day plays a crucial role in understanding the steps we’ve taken so far and what the next steps must be to keep on this trajectory. Hydropower development is well short of the required pathway to net zero – we need to build almost as much in the next 30 years as we have in the past 130 years.  

This Global Hydropower Day is a day to explain and celebrate what the industry has to offer to address the most challenging threat facing humanity. This day gives sustainable hydropower a louder voice in the energy transition; providing our members in more than 120 countries a chance to share the ways hydropower contributes to climate resilience and delivers on global net zero goals. We are no longer an industry in defensive retreat, but a proud, innovative, and outward looking sector joined up with our friends and allies across the renewables.  

Please open your companies and organisations to tell the world what you are doing – use events, videos, site tours, articles, broadcasts, social media posts and any other ideas to explain the many things we can achieve #WithHydropower, with examples from across the world available on the IHA website.  

Thank you once again for all the support to IHA, to me personally and most importantly, to advancing sustainable hydropower.

Roger Gill,

IHA President