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

The Â鶹ÊÓƵ 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. Â鶹ÊÓƵ is recognised as the global voice for the sector – but this has not always been easy.  

When I joined Â鶹ÊÓƵ 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 Â鶹ÊÓƵ 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 Â鶹ÊÓƵ acting as the secretariat – and in 2010 the Â鶹ÊÓƵ Sustainability Assessment Protocol was launched. By 2021, the multi-stakeholder group had elevated it to the Â鶹ÊÓƵ Sustainability Standard and the sector – represented by Â鶹ÊÓƵ – 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 Â鶹ÊÓƵ Sustainability Standard will now be managed by a body independent of the Â鶹ÊÓƵ; The Â鶹ÊÓƵ 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 Â鶹ÊÓƵ 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 Â鶹ÊÓƵ Presidency to Malcolm Turnbull, along with the election of a new Chair of Â鶹ÊÓƵ.

From a personal perspective, I've thoroughly enjoyed my time with Â鶹ÊÓƵ 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 Â鶹ÊÓƵ 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. Â鶹ÊÓƵ 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 Â鶹ÊÓƵ 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 #WithÂ鶹ÊÓƵ, with examples from across the world available on the Â鶹ÊÓƵ website.  

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

Roger Gill,

Â鶹ÊÓƵ President