China approves world’s largest hydropower dam in Tibet despite public pushback

Beijing approved the construction of the world’s biggest hydropower dam despite public outcry from residents near the site.

Once completed, the dam on the Yarlung Zangbo River in Tibet could produce as much as 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, more than tripling the capacity of the world’s biggest hydropower plant, also in China.

The project — which critics say could affect millions of people downstream in India and Bangladesh — underscores Beijing’s ambitions to lead the world in green energy generation: According to the Global Energy Monitor, China is on track to add nearly twice as much solar and wind energy capacity as the rest of the world combined.