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The first ever Global Hydropower Day takes place today!
Today’s spotlight is on hydropower’s human benefits. Please take a few minutes to participate.
Themed to extoll the positive impacts of hydropower’s effects on people and communities, Global Hydropower Day is being marked by a variety of events and initiatives taking place around the world, which you can learn more about here.
With videos put together by international hydropower stakeholders highlighting the important role hydropower plays in their everyday life, Global Hydropower Day is demonstrating how critical waterpower resources are for people across the globe.
Hydropower has a crucial role to play in delivering the clean energy transition and keeping global temperature rise under control. As the world’s largest renewable, and one of the oldest clean energy technologies, hydropower has transformed livelihoods and helped raise standards of living.
It is perhaps surprising then, that hydropower is one of the few energy sources without a dedicated, international day of celebration, that is, until now.
WHY IS GLOBAL HYDROPOWER DAY IMPORTANT?
Global Hydropower Day provides an opportunity to tell stories about hydropower’s real human impacts, such as economic growth, job creation, and the multiple direct benefits of projects: flood and drought control, water supply, recreation, land conservation, and irrigation.
Global Hydropower Day puts a spotlight on the benefits hydropower can provide to society, if developed responsibly and sustainably. The benefits consist of seven central themes:
- Making net zero goals a reality
- Keeping the lights on with green energy
- Providing affordable energy for generations
- Storing wind and solar energy in water
- Decarbonizing industries with clean energy
- Protecting communities from floods and droughts
- Developing renewable energy sustainably
These themes were spawned through consultation with campaign partners, and the messages were created to tell hydropower’s story as part of demonstrating to the world in simple, straightforward terms why hydropower is critical to the clean energy transition.
By utilizing sustainable hydropower, a clean, green, modern, and affordable solution to climate change is available. Hydropower is a flexible and reliable backup to other renewables, and it can be scaled to bring global temperature rise under control.
With climate change affecting the lives of all species on the planet, a net zero future is still possible, but it requires the people, and governments of the world, to work together to harness the complementary strengths of renewables, ensuring a better future for all.
NHA CELEBRATES GLOBAL HYDROPOWER DAY
Global Hydropower Day is an important opportunity to recognize the importance of the U.S. hydropower market, as evidenced by the industry converging on Sacramento, California, from around the globe next week to attend Clean Currents, the National Hydropower Association (NHA) NHA’s conference + tradeshow.
It’s also an important day to recognize NHA’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. In recognition of this commitment, NHA today is signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Global Women’s Network for the Energy Transition (GWNET). With Global Hydropower Day’s message of unity as the backdrop, the MOU establishes a framework for the advancement of gender equality and empowers women in the energy sector.
By working together, both NHA and the Global Women’s Network for the Energy Transition will develop initiatives, projects, and programs with the explicit aim of empowering women, fostering equal opportunities between women and men, and contributing to gender mainstreaming in the energy sector. Check out the interview with Barbara Fischer-Aupperle, Founding Partner of GWNET, and Malcolm Woolf, President and CEO of NHA, where they discuss the MOU and the importance of advancing gender equality and women empowerment in the energy sector.
Next week during Clean Currents, the two organizations, along with the Women in Hydropower Mentorship Program, are offering an entire path of activities to follow around the topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
HOW CAN I GET INVOLVED?
By adding your voice to the discussion on Global Hydropower Day, and by sharing your personal stories on social media using the hashtags #GlobalHydropowerDay and #WithHydropower, you can help elevate the important dialogue that is occurring.
To enhance your posts, a series of social media graphics are available to download and free to use.
You can also be on the lookout for the many video documentaries, interviews with industry professionals, insightful articles, virtual events, and social discussions, which will be unfolding throughout the day on various social media platforms.
In addition to Global Hydropower Day, the “We Can, With Hydropower” campaign, which has been building awareness of hydropower’s good work leading up to Global Hydropower Day, has achieved significant reach. On social media, over one million impressions have been garnered from the International Hydropower Association’s accounts, with many millions more reached through campaign partners’ platforms and hashtags. By utilizing #GlobalHydropowerDay and #WithHydropower, participants on social media can join an international conversation.
To find out more about how to get involved, including what’s happening today, check out hydropower.org/globalday.
