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Turkey has made impressive strides in recent years in boosting private sector investment to develop the country’s extensive renewable energy resources. The push for investment in Turkey’s wind and hydropower assets began in 2003 with landmark legislation that liberalized the energy sector. Other reforms quickly followed that accelerated the growth of renewables and resulted in an upsurge in privately generated electricity. By 2012, independently owned renewable generation facilities were producing over 26,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity, a 17-fold increase over levels a decade earlier.

The government’s privatization efforts were particularly successful in Turkey’s hydropower sector. The rapid increase in privately funded small- to medium-sized hydroelectric power plants helped Turkey develop a more reliable and efficient energy supply as well as progress towards its goal of producing 30 percent of its total energy from renewables by 2023.

At the same time, the upsurge of private-sector investment in renewables prompted a dialogue on natural resource and water management policy, particularly with regard to the cumulative environmental impacts of these hydropower projects. These included increased risk of erosion and landslides, the disruption of water flow, and the destruction of aquatic life as well as terrestrial flora and fauna. Although Turkey’s government had a strong Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulation in place, it contained no specific provisions requiring the assessment of cumulative—rather than singular—environmental impacts.

“At one stage more than 1,500 hydropower plant licenses had been granted, but people were tending to focus only on individual projects, individual licenses and individual environmental assessments,” said Esra Arikan, an Environmental Specialist with the World Bank’s Europe and Central Asia Sustainable Development Department.  “No one was really looking at the big picture.”

Ms. Arikan cited as an example a river on which more than 20 hydropower plants had been constructed. Each had created its own access roads, power lines and transmission tunnels—the multiplication of which was posing a serious environmental risk.

In 2010, Turkey’s Ministry of Environment and Urbanization requested World Bank assistance in developing a methodology to integrate Cumulative Environmental Impact Assessments (CEIAs) into the planning and execution of future hydroelectric power projects.

The result was the ESMAP-supported report Cumulative Environmental Impact Assessment for Hydropower Projects in Turkey, a first-of-its kind undertaking designed to ensure that the rapid development of hydropower plants is consistent with environmental sustainability.

Published in early 2013, the study was the result of an 18-month process that included six workshops and consultations with stakeholders including public authorities, international finance institutions, and NGOs.

Built around a Pilot Basin case study in Turkey’s Upper Ceyhan Basin, the study presents guidelines for conducting a CEIA, including practical examples and different approaches to take.

It lays out the five steps and unique tasks that comprise the CEIA framework—scoping; baseline studies and impact assessment; development of mitigation measures; evaluation of significance; and monitoring and follow-up—and details how the results from each feed into both the final cumulative assessment and the larger EIA Regulation. A checklist at the end of the guidelines serves to ensure that practitioners incorporate a range of key factors into a comprehensive CEIA report.

Ms. Arikan said the new CEIA guidelines complement the Private Sector Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Project—introduced by the World Bank in 2009 to help Turkey increase privately owned and operated energy production from renewable sources and enhance demand-side energy efficiency—and in future could be utilized as part of an integrated basin- management planning process.

The Ministry of Environment and Urbanization hopes to insert the new guidelines into a revised national EIA in the future. In the meantime, it has started to incorporate CEIA assessments as part of the EIA process when developing new hydropower plants.

Although the guidelines were specifically designed for Turkey, they can easily be adapted and applied in other countries that share Turkey’s goal of achieving energy security and sustainable economic growth.

Download the Report | Sample Guidelines: Cumulative Environmental Impact Assessment for Hydropower Projects in Turkey