View previous stories
	IPCC: Urgent climate action required to secure a liveable future for all by UN News, IPCC News, CAN International   Mar. 2023 (UN News)   A major UN report from the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - “Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report”, brings into sharp focus the losses and damages experienced now, and expected to continue into the future, which are hitting the most vulnerable people and ecosystems especially hard.   Temperatures have already risen to 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a consequence of more than a century of burning fossil fuels, as well as unequal and unsustainable energy and land use.   This has resulted in more frequent and intense extreme weather events that have caused increasingly dangerous impacts on nature and people in every region of the world.   Climate-driven food and water insecurity is expected to grow with increased warming: when the risks combine with other adverse events, such as pandemics or conflicts, they become even more difficult to manage.   If temperatures are to be kept to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, deep, rapid, and sustained greenhouse gas emissions reductions will be needed in all sectors this decade, the reports states. Emissions need to go down now, and be cut by almost half by 2030, if this goal has any chance of being achieved.   The solution proposed by the IPCC is “climate resilient development,” which involves integrating measures to adapt to climate change with actions to reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions in ways that provide wider benefits.   Examples include access to clean energy, low-carbon electrification, the promotion of zero and low carbon transport, and improved air quality: the economic benefits for people’s health from air quality improvements alone would be roughly the same, or possibly even larger, than the costs of reducing or avoiding emissions.   “The greatest gains in wellbeing could come from prioritizing climate risk reduction for low-income and marginalized communities, including people living in informal settlements,” said Christopher Trisos, one of the report’s authors. “Accelerated climate action will only come about if there is a many-fold increase in finance. Insufficient and misaligned finance is holding back progress.”   The power of governments to reduce barriers to lowering greenhouse gas emissions, through public funding and clear signals to investors, and scaling up tried and tested policy measures, is emphasized in the report.   Changes in the food sector, electricity, transport, industry, buildings, and land-use are highlighted as important ways to cut emissions, as well as moves to low-carbon lifestyles, which would improve health and wellbeing.   “Transformational changes are more likely to succeed where there is trust, where everyone works together to prioritize risk reduction, and where benefits and burdens are shared equitably,” said IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee.   “This Synthesis Report underscores the urgency of taking more ambitious action and shows that, if we act now, we can still secure a liveable sustainable future for all.”   UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has proposed to the G20 group of highly developed economies a “Climate Solidarity Pact,” in which all big emitters would make extra efforts to cut emissions, and wealthier countries would mobilize financial and technical resources to support emerging economies in a common effort to ensure that global temperatures do not rise by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.   Mr. Guterres announced that he is presenting a plan to boost efforts to achieve the Pact through an Acceleration Agenda, which involves leaders of developed countries committing to reaching net zero as close as possible to 2040, and developing countries as close as possible to 2050.   The Agenda calls for an end to coal, net-zero electricity generation by 2035 for all developed countries and 2040 for the rest of the world, and a stop to all licensing or funding of new oil and gas, and any expansion of existing oil and gas reserves.   These measures Mr. Guterres says must accompany safeguards for the most vulnerable communities, scaling up finance and capacities for adaptation and loss and damage, and promoting reforms to ensure Multilateral Development Banks provide more grants and loans, and fully mobilize private finance.   Looking ahead to the upcoming UN climate conference, due to be held in Dubai in December, Mr. Guterres said that he expects all G20 leaders to have committed to ambitious new economy-wide nationally determined contributions encompassing all greenhouse gases, and indicating their absolute emissions cuts targets for 2035 and 2040.   * UN Secretary-General's message at launch of the Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: http://bit.ly/3FzzFUg   20 Mar. 2023   Urgent climate action to secure a liveable future for all. (IPCC press release)   There are multiple, feasible and effective options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to human-caused climate change, and they are available now, said scientists in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released today.   “Mainstreaming effective and equitable climate action will not only reduce losses and damages for nature and people, it will also provide wider benefits,” said IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee. “This Synthesis Report underscores the urgency of taking more ambitious action and shows that, if we act now, we can still secure a liveable sustainable future for all.”   In 2018, IPCC highlighted the unprecedented scale of the challenge required to keep warming to 1.5°C. Five years later, that challenge has become even greater due to a continued increase in greenhouse gas emissions. The pace and scale of what has been done so far, and current plans, are insufficient to tackle climate change.   More than a century of burning fossil fuels as well as unequal and unsustainable energy and land use has led to global warming of 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels. This has resulted in more frequent and more intense extreme weather events that have caused increasingly dangerous impacts on nature and people in every region of the world.   Every increment of warming results in rapidly escalating hazards. More intense heatwaves, heavier rainfall and other weather extremes further increase risks for human health and ecosystems. In every region, people are dying from extreme heat. Climate-driven food and water insecurity is expected to increase with increased warming. When the risks combine with other adverse events, such as pandemics or conflicts, they become even more difficult to manage.   Losses and damages in sharp focus   The report, approved during a week-long session in Interlaken, brings in to sharp focus the losses and damages we are already experiencing and will continue into the future, hitting the most vulnerable people and ecosystems especially hard. Taking the right action now could result in the transformational change essential for a sustainable, equitable world.   “Climate justice is crucial because those who have contributed least to climate change are being disproportionately affected,” said Aditi Mukherji, one of the 93 authors of this Synthesis Report, the closing chapter of the Panel’s sixth assessment.   “Almost half of the world’s population lives in regions that are highly vulnerable to climate change. In the last decade, deaths from floods, droughts and storms were 15 times higher in highly vulnerable regions,“ she added.   In this decade, accelerated action to adapt to climate change is essential to close the gap between existing adaptation and what is needed. Meanwhile, keeping warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels requires deep, rapid and sustained greenhouse gas emissions reductions in all sectors. Emissions should be decreasing by now and will need to be cut by almost half by 2030, if warming is to be limited to 1.5°C.   Clear way ahead.   The solution lies in climate resilient development. This involves integrating measures to adapt to climate change with actions to reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions in ways that provide wider benefits.   For example: access to clean energy and technologies improves health, especially for women and children; low-carbon electrification, walking, cycling and public transport enhance air quality, improve health, employment opportunities and deliver equity. The economic benefits for people’s health from air quality improvements alone would be roughly the same, or possibly even larger than the costs of reducing or avoiding emissions.   Climate resilient development becomes progressively more challenging with every increment of warming. This is why the choices made in the next few years will play a critical role in deciding our future and that of generations to come.   To be effective, these choices need to be rooted in our diverse values, worldviews and knowledges, including scientific knowledge, Indigenous Knowledge and local knowledge. This approach will facilitate climate resilient development and allow locally appropriate, socially acceptable solutions.   “The greatest gains in wellbeing could come from prioritizing climate risk reduction for low-income and marginalised communities, including people living in informal settlements,” said Christopher Trisos, one of the report’s authors. “Accelerated climate action will only come about if there is a many-fold increase in finance. Insufficient and misaligned finance is holding back progress.”   Enabling sustainable development.   There is sufficient global capital to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions if existing barriers are reduced. Increasing finance to climate investments is important to achieve global climate goals. Governments, through public funding and clear signals to investors, are key in reducing these barriers. Investors, central banks and financial regulators can also play their part.   There are tried and tested policy measures that can work to achieve deep emissions reductions and climate resilience if they are scaled up and applied more widely. Political commitment, coordinated policies, international cooperation, ecosystem stewardship and inclusive governance are all important for effective and equitable climate action.   If technology, know-how and suitable policy measures are shared, and adequate finance is made available now, every community can reduce or avoid carbon-intensive consumption. At the same time, with significant investment in adaptation, we can avert rising risks, especially for vulnerable groups and regions.   Climate, ecosystems and society are interconnected. Effective and equitable conservation of approximately 30-50% of the Earth’s land, freshwater and ocean will help ensure a healthy planet. Urban areas offer a global scale opportunity for ambitious climate action that contributes to sustainable development.   Changes in the food sector, electricity, transport, industry, buildings and land-use can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, they can make it easier for people to lead low-carbon lifestyles, which will also improve health and wellbeing. A better understanding of the consequences of overconsumption can help people make more informed choices.   “Transformational changes are more likely to succeed where there is trust, where everyone works together to prioritise risk reduction, and where benefits and burdens are shared equitably,” Lee said. “We live in a diverse world in which everyone has different responsibilities and different opportunities to bring about change. Some can do a lot while others will need support to help them manage the change.”   http://www.ipcc.ch/2023/03/20/press-release-ar6-synthesis-report/ http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/resources/spm-headline-statements/ http://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-cycle/   * Summary for Policymakers: http://bit.ly/405QYEw   * UN WebTV launch of report: http://media.un.org/en/asset/k1d/k1df15sj4e   Mar. 2023   Climate Action Network International: Civil society representatives react to the IPCC Synthesis Report.   The IPCC AR6 Synthesis Report published today holds a mirror up to the scale of the climate crisis and lays out in stark detail why the end of the fossil fuel era starts now. The body of science from the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment cycle provides irrefutable evidence to governments who have now endorsed the reports and accepted the science. It is now up to them to stop aggravating the problem and take action in this decisive decade with a drastic leap towards real solutions for a climate-stable future for all.   Civil society representatives comment below:   Dr Stephan Singer, Senior Adviser on Science and Energy, Climate Action Network International:   “The global science community and governments have agreed “unequivocally” that greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels are the single largest threat to people and nature. The science refers to the looming dangers of not aligning with the 1.5 C pathway and the deep, ambitious and equitable decarbonisation actions needed now to stay on track.   It is a fact that almost half of the world’s population is and will be affected increasingly in next years with climate change impacts. The report warns that what presently is a-one-in-a-century event with regards to storms, sea level rise, flooding will be an annual event in many places unless the world cuts carbon immediately. Governments agreed to keep the 1.5°C survival target as necessary and economically and technically feasible.   The report agreed that the most cost-effective and sustainable options to cut emissions in the short and long term are with scaling up solar and wind energy, increasing energy efficiency, halting deforestation and embarking on restoration of degraded nature as well as shifting to more plant-based diets. Overall, this report is another nail in the coffin of the fossil fuel industry.”   Lili Fuhr, Deputy Director, Climate and Energy Program, Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL):   "The takeaway of the IPCC synthesis is irrefutable: an immediate, rapid and equitable fossil fuel phaseout is the cornerstone of any strategy to avoid catastrophic levels of global warming. Yet, the negotiations this past week highlighted the clash between the latest climate science and the mainstream economic models that perpetuate a business-as-usual approach. The IPCC reports show that we can prevent irreversible harm to people and the planet if we scale up proven solutions available now: replacing fossil fuels with renewables, increasing energy efficiency, and reducing energy and resource use are the surest path to limiting global warming to 1.5°C.   Building our mitigation strategies on models that instead lock in inequitable growth and conveniently assume away the risks of technofixes like carbon capture and storage and carbon dioxide removal ignores that clarion message and increases the likelihood of overshoot. The most ambitious mitigation pathways put out by the IPCC set the floor, not the ceiling, for necessary climate action. Solving the climate crisis is not about what works on paper but what delivers in practice. There is no time to waste with false solutions.”   Harjeet Singh, Head of Global Political Strategy, Climate Action Network International:   “The new IPCC report shows the writing clearly on the wall. Governments have no excuse to ignore the emphatic warning for this critical decade. They must act fast to reject fossil fuels and stop any new expansion of oil, gas and coal.   The blueprint for climate action presented by the IPCC is not short of solutions and infused with enough hope. Every fraction of a degree of warming puts us closer to breaching the 1.5°C survival threshold. Governments must strengthen efforts to protect communities from worsening and irreversible climate impacts, such as sea-level rise and melting of glaciers, which pose an existential threat to many communities. Scaling up finance must be the key lever to make the transition to a climate stable future in a just and equitable manner.”   Kaisa Kosonen, Senior Policy Advisor, Greenpeace Nordic:   “The threats are huge, but so are the opportunities for change. This is our moment to rise up, scale up and be bold. Governments must stop doing just a little better and start doing enough.Thanks to brave scientists, communities and progressive leaders around the world, who’ve persistently advanced climate solutions like solar and wind energy for years and decades; we now have everything needed to solve this mess. It’s time to up our game, deliver on climate justice and push fossil fuel interests out of the way. There’s a role for everyone to play.”   Dr Stephanie Roe, WWF Global Climate and Energy Lead Scientist and Lead Author on the IPCC Working Group III report:   “This report represents the most comprehensive collection of climate science since the last assessment came out almost a decade ago. Weaving together the findings from the multi-thousand-page reports published over the last few years, it very clearly lays out the devastating impacts climate change is already having on our lives and ecosystems all around the world, the harsh future we all face if we don’t get our act together, and the solutions we can implement now to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change. Some countries are already achieving sustained emissions reductions, but action is not yet at the scale or speed we need.   With current emissions still at their highest level in human history, we are way off course, and the window to limit warming to 1.5ºC is rapidly closing. The sooner and more decisively we act, the sooner people and nature can reap the benefits of a cleaner, safer and more stable future. We have all the tools we need, so it’s well within our power to meet this challenge if we act now.”   Marlene Achoki, Global Policy Co-Lead on Climate Justice, CARE International:   “At 1.1 degrees of warming today, over 3 billion people are already living with the harshest realities of climate change; high temperatures, drought, flooding, and other events that contribute to acute food and water insecurity, malnutrition, and loss of livelihoods. Often women and girls are among the most affected.   The devastating impact of Cyclone Freddy in Southern Africa, the longest cyclone ever recorded, puts human faces to these figures. Governments and decision makers must act immediately by stepping up adaptation efforts with ramped up financial support from rich countries. And as the IPCC report indicates, this will only be effective with meaningful local participation and strong integration of gender-based equity considerations.”   Teresa Anderson, Climate Justice Lead, ActionAid International:   “There’s a terrifying flood of evidence that climate impacts are already far worse, and harming billions more people, than was predicted even just a few years ago. It really proves the urgent need for the UN to make good on last year’s historic decision at COP27 to create a new fund to help communities affected by climate-induced loss and damage. But everyone who reads this report will be scared for their own future. This needs to be the trigger that moves the world from grudging acceptance to rapid action on climate change.   With the finger of blame firmly pointed at the fossil fuel industry, governments need to stop delaying and start acting. For too many years, the elusive promises of technofixes or carbon offsets have allowed the biggest polluters to string us all along. Enough is enough. There is only a narrow window of opportunity to limit warming to 1.5°C, avoid runaway climate breakdown, and protect billions of people. But we can only do this if governments are willing to treat this report as a clear mandate for courageous action.”   Olivier Bois von Kursk, Policy Analyst, International Institute for Sustainable Development:   “The IPCC Synthesis Report gives us the clearest evidence to date on the devastation of climate change and our failure to address its underlying causes. The clear implication is that we must act immediately to phase out coal, oil and gas. IISD’s analysis of IPCC pathways to 1.5°C shows oil and gas production needs to decrease 30% by 2030 and 65% by 2050. Any conclusion that we can delay the energy transition by capturing massive amounts of carbon from fossil fuel or bioenergy production is out of touch with the IPCC’s assessment of the challenges facing these expensive, unproven technologies. Without a sharp decline in the production and consumption of all fossil fuels, the remarkable progress on renewable energy deployment over the past years will be meaningless for the climate.”   Rachel Cleetus, Policy Director, Climate and Energy Program, Union of Concerned Scientists:   "The stark facts in this latest IPCC report, and the devastating, costly climate-related disasters being experienced by people around the world, are harsh reminders that our governments are failing us. Decades of politically motivated inaction from policymakers and the greed of fossil fuel companies who are obstructing climate progress have put us on this trajectory of mounting economic harm and human misery.   The IPCC report is bracingly clear that a sharp phase down of fossil fuels and a just and transformative shift to clean energy, accompanied by equitable investments in climate resilience, are the only ways to secure a livable future. If policymakers in richer nations like the United States continue to expand fossil fuels and fail to provide climate finance for low-income countries, they are acting in direct contradiction to the science and to the well-being of people and the planet".   Sara Shaw at Friends of the Earth International (FOEI):   "It's very alarming to see carbon dioxide removal featuring so centrally in the IPCC report. We can't rely on risky, untested, and downright dangerous removals technologies just because big polluters want us to stick to the status quo. A fair and fast phaseout of oil, gas, and coal needs to happen in this decade, and it can, with the right political will. We must heed the IPCC's urgent messages, without falling into the trap of assuming that carbon dioxide removal will save the day."   Fellow FOIE leader Hemantha Withanage:   "In my country, Sri Lanka, the impacts of climate change are being felt now. We have no time to chase fairy tales like carbon removal technologies to suck carbon out of the air. The IPCC evidence is clear: Climate change is killing people, nature, and the planet. The answers are obvious: a fair and fast phaseout of fossil fuels, and finance for a just transition. The fantasy of overshooting safe limits and betting on risky technofixes is certainly not a cure for the problem."   Corporate Accountability director of climate research and policy Rachel Rose Jackon:   "Breaching 1.5°C is not an option. Governments will be effectively signing millions of avoidable death warrants for those who contributed least to the crisis."   Yolande Wright, Global Director Child Poverty, Climate and Urban, Save the Children International:   “The scientific evidence summarized by the IPCC leaves no doubt that urgent action is needed to limit warming to a maximum of 1.5°C. World leaders must act now by rapidly phasing out the use and subsidy of fossil fuels. The lives of our children depend on it. The climate crisis is a child’s rights crisis.   It’s only fair that children have a say in decisions which will have a massive impact on their futures. At this year’s IPCC plenary, Save the Children was accompanied as an observer by youth delegates. Save the Children has worked with the IPCC to make sure that young people and children attend as youth delegates in the future.”   The chair of the Alliance of Small Island States Fatumanava-o-Upolu III Dr. Pa'olelei Luteru:   "While our people are being displaced from their homes and climate commitments go unmet, the fossil fuel industry is enjoying billions in profits. There can be no excuses for this continued lack of action."   http://climatenetwork.org/2023/03/20/ipcc-synthesis-report-civil-society-reacts/ http://www.ifrc.org/press-release/ipcc-report-ifrc-call-transformation-there-no-time-delay http://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/58753/10-things-know-about-ipcc-climate-science-report/ http://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/58742/that-graph-on-fire/ http://insideclimatenews.org/news/28032023/corporate-interests-watered-down-the-latest-ipcc-climate-report-investigations-find/ http://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/30/melting-antarctic-ice-predicted-to-cause-rapid-slowdown-of-deep-ocean-current-by-2050 http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/03/states-must-step-climate-action-now-it-too-late-un-expert Visit the related web page
	Global fresh water demand will outstrip supply by 40% by 2030 by OHCHR, Global Commission on the Economics of Water   23 Mar. 2023   Global fresh water demand will outstrip supply by 40% by 2030. (Guardian, agencies)   The United Nations opened its first water conference in almost half a century, with a plea for countries to work together to tackle overconsumption, water guzzling industries and the climate crisis – or else face more hunger, conflicts and forced migration due to worsening water scarcity.   A quarter of the world’s population still does not have access to safe drinking water while half lacks basic sanitation, and despite some progress in recent years, the climate crisis is making the situation worse.   “We are draining humanity’s lifeblood through vampiric overconsumption and unsustainable use, and evaporating it through global heating,” said UN secretary general Antonio Guterres. “Governments must develop and implement plans that ensure equitable water access for all people while conserving this precious resource.”   Universal access to clean drinking water and sanitation is one of 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) created through the UN process in 2015, alongside ending hunger and poverty, achieving gender equality, and taking action on climate change.   At the current pace of investment and political will, access to water and sanitation (SDG6) will not be achieved for decades after the 2030 target. At this rate, only 37% of people in sub-Saharan Africa will have safely managed water by 2030. Access within the richest countries is also uneven, with Native American households 19 times more likely to live without basic plumbing than white Americans.   According to an analysis by WaterAid, investment needs to more than triple to at least $200bn a year to close the current financial gap and get everyone on the planet access to safe water and sanitation by 2030.   The Covid pandemic and the climate breakdown – which has exacerbated water scarcity (drought) in many countries and damaged critical infrastructure damage (extreme storms and flooding) – have underscored that access to water and sanitation are deeply connected to health, economic activity, food insecurity and education.   Girls and women cannot go to school or engage in paid employment if they need to spend hours collecting water every day. Neither malnutrition in children nor obesity in adults can be tackled without access to safe, clean and affordable water.   Yet so far, governments and other agencies have done a poor job at connecting the dots, said Michael Dunford, director of the World Food Programme’s east Africa region where 82 million are facing acute hunger and famine due to drought – up from 60 million this time last year. “Eradicating hunger is unattainable without water security.”   “We have to break down silos if we’re going to solve this problem. This conference needs to be a galvanising moment globally and across sectors, and kickstart work towards something binding,” said Elizabeth Marcey, WaterAid’s US director of policy and advocacy. “For too long Wash [water, sanitation and hygiene] efforts have been focused on plumbing not people. Solutions need to be locally sustainable.”   The conference is taking place at a time of unprecedented water related crises: global heating is causing increasingly intense drought and floods; industrial agriculture, mining, fossil fuels, cement and other industries are using and polluting increasingly scarce water resources; and 10% of the rise in global forced migration is linked to water shortages.   Drought in the American west and Europe has demonstrated how the climate crisis is threatening access to water in countries and communities that had until recently taken water for granted.   Despite what’s at stake, so far there have been few concrete financial pledges. Instead, the conference is expected to culminate in the Water Action Agenda – a non-binding collection of commitments from the public, nonprofit and private sectors that the UN hopes will scale-up actions needed for global water security.   On the question of financing, delegates from climate vulnerable nations outlined the loss and damage to livelihoods, land, cultures and life already being suffered due to rising sea level, groundwater salination, drought, storm surges and irregular rainfall patterns, as part of an event on the nexus between water and forced migration. The Tuvalu official said that some areas are already uninhabitable forcing residents to relocate. “We don’t want to move out of or country, so we need the support of the international community on loss and damage.”   Cop27 in Egypt last year ended with a agreement to create a fund through which rich polluting countries mostly responsible for global heating will partially compensate poor vulnerable countries for irreversible loss and damage from the climate crisis.   The water conference includes almost a hundred side events with at least 8,000 delegates expected to attend in person. But access to the UN conference – like access to safe, clean affordable water (and the climate talks) – is unequal. Water justice advocates warned about the corporate capture of the UN water agenda with Bayer, Unilever, Cargill and Coca Cola among the polluting multinationals holding events. Meanwhile representatives from frontline communities have been denied access due to visa, accreditation and funding issues.   “You can’t plan or make decisions for people without their presence, we represent our communities so without us, our voices are lost, our people and communities are not heard,” said Nigerian youth activist Lovelyn Andrawus from Rise Up Nigeria and Fridays For Future who could not get a visa. “Water or climate issues are global crises with local solutions so we need to be represented.”   The tension between private sector priorities and public access bubbled over at an event on water as the lynchpin for global resilience organised by the US delegation. Detlef Stammer from the World Meteorological Organisation blasted the speaker from Diageo, the global drinks company that sells Johnny Walker whiskey and Guinness, after she made the business case for investing in Wash and water conservation. Forty of Diageo’s 200 global sites are operating in water stressed places.   “You pump so much groundwater out of the ground to put things into plastic bottles, there is not enough for agriculture,” said Stammer. “We have to distribute what we have in a way that’s most useful. That’s the whole story.”   The privatisation of water and sanitation services is taking place across the world, and is being pushed by a number of governments and development banks.   At an event organised by the People’s Water Forum, Meera Karunananthan, from the Blue Planet Project in Canada, said the emphasis on getting the private sector involved in the delivery of clean water and sanitation was “alarming” and ignored years of research about the harmful consequences of privatisation from around the world.   Pedro Arrojo, the UN special rapporteur on the human right to water, helped to launch the water justice manifesto stating that access to water and sanitation is a fundamental human right, and that personal and domestic needs must take priority over industrial use and profits.   Mar. 2023   The world is facing an imminent water crisis, with demand expected to outstrip the supply of fresh water by 40% by the end of this decade, experts have said on the eve of a crucial UN water summit.   Governments must urgently stop subsidising the extraction and overuse of water through misdirected agricultural subsidies, and industries from mining to manufacturing must be made to overhaul their wasteful practices, according a report on the economics of water.   Nations must start to manage water as a global common good, because most countries are highly dependent on their neighbours for water supplies, and overuse, pollution and the climate crisis threaten water supplies globally, the report’s authors say.   Johan Rockstrom, the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and co-chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, and a lead author of the report, told the Guardian the world’s neglect of water resources was leading to disaster.   “The scientific evidence is that we have a water crisis. We are misusing water, polluting water, and changing the whole global hydrological cycle, through what we are doing to the climate. It’s a triple crisis.”   Rockstrom’s fellow Global Commission on the Economics of Water co-chair Mariana Mazzucato, a professor at University College London and also a lead author of the report, added: “We need a much more proactive, and ambitious, common good approach. We have to put justice and equity at the centre of this, it’s not just a technological or finance problem.”   Many governments still do not realise how interdependent they are when it comes to water, according to Rockstrom. Most countries depend for about half of their water supply on the evaporation of water from neighbouring countries – known as “green” water because it is held in soils and delivered from transpiration in forests and other ecosystems, when plants take up water from the soil and release vapour into the air from their leaves.   The report calls for establishing “just water partnerships” to raise finance for water projects in developing and middle-income countries.   More than $700bn of subsidies globally go to agriculture and water each year and these often fuel excessive water consumption. Water leakage must also be urgently addressed, the report found, and restoring freshwater systems such as wetlands should be another priority.   Many of the ways in which water is used are inefficient and in need of change, with Rockstrom pointing to developed countries’ sewage systems.   “It’s quite remarkable that we use safe, fresh water to carry excreta, urine, nitrogen, phosphorus – and then need to have inefficient wastewater treatment plants that leak 30% of all the nutrients into downstream aquatic ecosystems and destroy them and cause dead zones. We’re really cheating ourselves in terms of this linear, waterborne modern system of dealing with waste. There are massive innovations required.”   The UN water summit, led by the governments of the Netherlands and Tajikistan, will take place on 22 March. It will mark the first time in more than four decades the UN has met to discuss water.   Henk Ovink, a special envoy for international water affairs for the Netherlands, told the Guardian the conference was crucial. “If we are to have a hope of solving our climate crisis, our biodiversity crisis and other global challenges on food, energy and health, we need to radically change our approach in how we value and manage water,” he said. “This is the best opportunity we have to put water at the centre of global action to ensure people, crops and the environment continue to have the water they need.”   The report calls on countries to manage the global water cycle as a global common good, to be protected collectively and in our shared interests. To take urgent action this decade on issues such as restoring wetlands and depleted groundwater resources;, recycling the water used in industry; moving to precision agriculture that uses water more efficiently; and having companies report on their “water footprint”.   http://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/22/un-water-conference-warns-worsening-scarcity http://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/wmo-calls-better-monitoring-of-increasingly-erratic-water-cycle http://reliefweb.int/report/world/global-water-security-2023-assessment http://www.unwater.org/publications/un-world-water-development-report-2023 http://inweh.unu.edu/global-water-security-2023-assessment/ http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/triple-threat-water-related-crises-endangering-lives-190-million-children-unicef http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/press-releases/action-against-hunger-analysis-finds-70-funding-gap-for-water-programs-across-41-countries/   * Risks and impacts of the commodification and financialization of water on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation. (OHCHR)   Report presented to the 76th UN General Assembly by the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, Pedro Arrojo Agudo. (A/76/159)   Water is one of the key elements of life, like the oxygen we breathe. For this reason, it has traditionally been considered a common good. However, stemming from the neoliberal perspective that emerged in the 1970s, water is most often considered an economic good that must be managed under the logic of the market, as a commodity.   The commodification of water use rights is generating, de facto, a progressive private appropriation of water by managing it as if it belonged to those who only received the right to use it, weakening the rules and priorities established in the concession systems (legal framework for allocating water use licenses).   This development puts at risk the exercise of human rights, especially for those living in poverty, as well as the sustainability of aquatic ecosystems. The increasing risks of water scarcity due to climate change threaten all water uses, but especially those linked to the enjoyment of the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation of the most impoverished. In this context, the commodification of water and even speculation are presented as ways to better manage water scarcity.   However, the truth is that these methods increase the vulnerability of the most impoverished and aggravate the unsustainability of the aquatic ecosystems - the two key factors in deepening the global water crisis.   The Special Rapporteur advocates the need to counter the commodification of water and to promote integrated management of the various sources, functions and uses of water, from an ecosystemic perspective and a human rights-based approach..   The lack of political will to assume the hydrological transition, as a democratic challenge and from a human rights-based approach, encourages false solutions based on the commodification and financialization of water, as ways of allegedly better managing the growing water scarcity caused by climate change. However, the truth is that they increase the vulnerability of the most impoverished and aggravate the unsustainability of the aquatic ecosystems, which are the two key factors in understanding the global water crisis.   To guarantee the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, especially those rights of the most impoverished people, communities, and sectors, water cannot be considered as a commodity and manage it from the logic of the market or even from the speculative logic that prevails in financial markets.   It is about developing participatory adaptation strategies, including with a gender perspective, based on the recovery of the good state of our aquatic ecosystems and on hydrological, territorial, and urban planning that prioritize the protection and fulfilment of human rights at stake.   Funding these strategies and protecting society against the perversions of market and speculative logic is part of the human rights obligations of states. As noted by the former Special Rapporteur, Leo Heller, the allocation of a budget that takes into account the entire life cycle of drinking water and sanitation services is part of States' obligation to progressively realise the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, including the prevention and provision of funds to prevent future impacts of climate change.   Water is a human right. It needs to be managed as a common good. Considering water as a commodity or a business opportunity will leave behind those that cannot access or afford the market prices. Commodification of water will derail achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and hamper efforts to solve the global water crisis, already further exacerbated by the triple planetary crisis: climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and toxic pollution, affecting the life and health of billions around the world.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2023/03/water-common-good-not-commodity-un-experts http://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Issues/Water/annual-reports/a-76-159-friendly-version.pdf http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-water-and-sanitation/annual-reports http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-water-and-sanitation http://reliefweb.int/report/world/human-rights-and-global-water-crisis-water-pollution-water-scarcity-and-water-related http://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2021/10/joint-statement-independent-united-nations-human-rights-experts-warning-threat   * The Blue Communities Project provides communities with the tools to fight the privatization of water and promote the human right to water. Through the project, we are working with local governments, community activists and water operators to ensure water justice for all.   A “Blue Community” is one that adopts a water commons framework that treats water as belonging to no one and the responsibility of all. Because water is essential for human life, it must be governed by principles that allow for reasonable use, equal distribution and responsible treatment in order to preserve water for nature and future generations.   The Blue Communities Project calls on communities to adopt a water commons framework by: Recognizing water as a human right. Promoting publicly financed, owned and operated water and wastewater services. Banning the sale of bottled water in public facilities and at municipal events.   The Blue Communities movement has grown internationally with Paris, France, Bern, Switzerland and other municipalities around the world going “blue.” Schools, religious communities and faith-based groups have also adopted principles that treat water as a common good that is shared by everyone and is the responsibility of all.   http://www.blueplanetproject.net/index.php/home/water-movements/the-blue-communities-project/ http://www.blueplanetproject.net/index.php/the-water-justice-manifesto/ http://canadians.org/bluecommunities/ http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2021/04/28/the-blue-communities-movement/ http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2015/08/02/water-privatization-facts-and-figures/ http://canadians.org/analysis/increased-climate-impacts-require-action-not-privatization/ http://therevelator.org/barlow-water-privatization/ http://www.2030spotlight.org/en/book/1730/chapter/sdg-6-remunicipalization-water Visit the related web page
	View more stories