Water news announcements from and relating to COP26
The global water industry called on governments around the world to boost investment in research into reducing emissions from processing wastewater. This accounts for around half of the sector’s total emissions. Trade bodies Water UK, EurEau, the US Water Alliance, the Water Services Association of Australia, Water New Zealand and the Danish Water and Wastewater Association were joined by companies including Mott MacDonald and Jacobs, and academics, in supporting the call to action. In addition, the group committed to establishing: a research directory to help accelerate the sector’s global efforts to reduce nitrous oxide and methane emissions; and a global forum to share research and collaborate on future activity to expedite the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
A PA Consulting report, The big drop: The untapped potential of water on decarbonisation, found global organisations could save 86bn cubic meters of water – equivalent to the yearly water consumption of Japan – and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 12m tonnes by 2030. This would provide up to a quarter of the annual GHG emissions cuts needed between now and 2030 to reach the 1.5°C global temperature climate goal set out in the Paris Agreement.
PA’s report surveyed leaders from 73 global organisations across sectors where water demand is intensive: drinks, fast-moving consumer goods, high-tech manufacturing, traditional manufacturing, and pharmaceuticals. Almost all respondents said it would be possible to improve water efficiencies by at least 5%, and 36% said they could increase water efficiency by 10-19%.
Anglian Water’s Future Fens project and the Living Deltas Research Hub pledged, at the end of a COP26 meeting they co-hosted on landscape scale adaptation, to continue to work together and to apply to join the UN Race to Resilience. After the meeting, the Future Fens Integrated Adaptation initiative – a collaboration between Anglian Water, Water Resources East, the Environment Agency and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority along with more than 40 regional partners – published a manifesto. This set out the risks, opportunities and shared commitments of the partners with an aim to bring renewed environmental, social and economic prosperity to the Fens region which faces unique challenges in the face of a warming climate due to its low-lying topography that is prone to the twin threats of drought and flooding.
Scottish Water, reported it is working with communities on the Isle of Lewis to restore eroding, damaged peatlands and ensure they continue to act as vital carbon storage, as well as support biodiversity and protect drinking water sources. Scottish Water aims to deliver around 330 hectares of restoration across Scotland in 2021/22, capturing and storing the equivalent of 231 to 924 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
WINZ – the Water Initiative for Net Zero – was launched at COP26: an advocacy movement open to all to join, to promote water’s role in reducing global heating and avoiding climate chaos. It is led by a Steering Group comprising: James Dalton (director of Global Water Programme, International Union for the Conservation of Nature), Jon Lane (founder of WINZ and chair, Scientific Programme Committee for World Water Week, Stockholm International Water Institute), John Matthews (executive director, Alliance for Global Water Adaptation) and Rachael McDonnell (deputy director general, International Water Management Institute). See HERE.
Sustainability First published a new virtual book exploring the climate crisis, fairness in society, and how to work together for a more sustainable future. Key messages in Together for a fair climate future included: a need for strategic action for systems change; that climate change must be treated as a fairness issue with social and environmental issues considered together; and that citizens and communities must be actively engaged in co-producing climate responses, ensuring a diversity of voices inform decision-making.
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