Climate Change, Hydro-dependency and the African Dam Boom

Matthew Cole, Robert Elliott () and Eric Strobl ()

Discussion Papers from Department of Economics, University of Birmingham

Abstract: We examine Africa's increasing reliance on hydropower in light of climate change induced variations in rainfall and the potential power outages that may result. We use a continent wide riverflow material model and IPPC climate change scenarios and show that current plans for African dam building are fairly well matched with river-flow predictions so that fears that international donors and national governments are making a series of expensive and environmentally damaging investments may be overstated. However, predictions of an increase in extreme events and reduced rainfall for certain countries means there are still viabilty concerns for certain planned hydropower investments.

Keywords: Hydropower; Climate Change; Africa Energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2014-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-ene, nep-env and nep-ger
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Climate Change, Hydro-Dependency, and the African Dam Boom (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bir:birmec:14-03

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