The world’s energy infrastructure is at “significant” risk from climate change, as extreme weather events threaten dams, thermal power plants and nuclear power plants, the World Meteorological Organization said this week.
in his latest report, the WMO said existing energy infrastructure was already “under pressure” and that climate change would likely directly affect fuel supplies, energy production and the physical resilience of existing and future energy projects.
In particular, the flood and drought risk was emphasized. By 2020, 87 percent of global electricity generated by thermal, nuclear and hydroelectric systems depended directly on water availability, the WMO said, but some facilities are in water-stressed areas.
The WMO said a third of thermal plants that depended on freshwater for cooling were already in water-scarce areas, as were 15 percent of existing nuclear power plants and 11 percent of hydroelectric plants.
About a quarter of the world’s existing hydropower dams, and nearly a quarter of planned dams, were in watersheds that already have a “medium to very high risk” of water scarcity, according to the WMO.
The results confirm a study published in the journal Water earlier this year on flood and drought risks for hydropower dams worldwide. It found that by 2050, 61 percent of all hydropower dams would be in river basins with a “very high or extreme risk of drought, flooding, or both.”
While only 2 percent of planned dams are in watersheds with the highest flood risk, the study predicts that nearly 40 percent of the same group of dams would be in watersheds with the highest flood risk.
The report modeled three scenarios, with the pessimistic scenario assuming a rise of 3.5C by the end of the century and the optimistic scenario assuming a temperature increase of 1.5C. Global temperature has risen by at least 1.1°C since the 1840s.
Jeffrey Opperman, one of the authors of the study and the leading global freshwater scientist for the World Wildlife Fund, said that even in an optimistic scenario to limit global warming by 2050, there would be an increase in drought and flood risk. .
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“We have to adapt if we want to be successful,” he said. “There is a big difference between the optimistic scenario versus the status quo, or the pessimistic one.”
“That underlines that if we want to avoid disruptions to our water or energy systems, our security, there is a very big difference between pursuing an ambitious reduction in greenhouse gases and actually meeting our goals rather than not doing so. said Opperman.
Countries with the highest existing hydropower capacity that are expected to experience the greatest increase in flood risk include Canada, Uganda, Russia, Zambia, Egypt, Ghana, Venezuela, China and India.
Countries with the highest existing hydropower capacity at risk of water scarcity also include China and India, as well as Turkey and Mexico, and the US states of Montana, Nevada, Texas, Arizona, California, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.
The megadrought that grips the US Southwest is a recent example. Water levels in the two largest reservoirs plunged to record lows in May this year, forcing unprecedented government interventions to protect water and power supplies in seven states.
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The sharp drop in water levels on Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the US, near Las Vegas, and Lake Powell upstream on the Colorado River have prompted federal officials to activate a drought emergency plan.
In the US, in the Biden administration’s infrastructure bill, $500 million was set aside for five years to fund dam safety projects, supporting dams that may be subject to increasing flooding. US officials said the funding would help develop long-term resilience to drought and climate change.
In China, severe summer drought and record temperatures led to power cuts as major hydropower-producing areas such as Sichuan Province struggled to meet electricity demand.
Companies, including Toyota and Apple supplier Foxconn, have suspended factory operations in the province after authorities said they would temporarily suspend power supplies to factories in a number of cities.
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