IHA members take hydropower to COP30 in Belém and Brussels

2025 was a year in which IHA and its members were present at every major forum where the future of clean energy was being decided. At COP30 in Belém, Brazil — the tenth anniversary of the Paris Agreement — IHA represented the hydropower sector at the Global Renewables Hub and engaged across the event's two weeks, ensuring that long-duration energy storage and pumped storage were woven into the international climate conversation alongside wind and solar.

IHA CEO Eddie Rich, speaking as Vice-Chair of the Global Renewables Alliance, made the case directly: Brazil — host of COP30 and a country where hydropower accounts for roughly 60% of electricity generation — was itself curtailing approximately 25% of its solar and wind power due to insufficient grid flexibility and storage. That paradox, Rich argued, illustrated why the clean energy transition cannot succeed on generation ambition alone. Pumped storage and conventional hydropower are the stability layer the system requires.

In parallel, and closer to home, IHA joined Eurelectric and Europe's largest hydropower operators in a high-level Commission-business roundtable in Brussels, issuing a joint call to the European Commission to take decisive action on long-duration energy storage. The coalition — including IHA member companies from across the continent — urged the Commission and member states to develop clear mechanisms and investment frameworks for pumped storage deployment, in line with the Commission's energy storage and renewable energy rollout objectives.

The breadth of IHA member engagement across 2025 — COP30, the Global Renewables Summit in New York, the G20 Clean Energy Ministerial, the IRENA General Assembly, and the IEA Ministerial — reflects a community that is not waiting for policy change to happen, but actively working to shape it at every available opportunity.