Water, energy and climate change: Key Policy Directions
This article says that Water, energy and climate change are inextricably linked.
Recently, there has been increased understanding of the links between water, energy and climate change. Some places in the world have successfully integrated both water and energy into planning, from investment to institutional decision-making. Nevertheless, there is still a significant gap in communications addressing the linkages at a global scale. In particular, currently only a limited number of publications, scenarios and perspectives about energy and climate change also address water issues.
Content Table
- Key messages
- Water and energy are inextricably linked
- Global energy and water demand are increasing
- Both water and energy use impact and depend on Ecosystems
- Climate change will affect availability and use of both water and energy
- Technology, innovation, a sense of shared responsibility and political will are factors that bring real solutions as we strive to keep pace with increasing needs from a growing population
- Key policy directions
- Provide reliable climate change risk data, models and analysis tools.
- Integrate water and energy efficiency in measurement tools and policy.
- Ensure institutional capacities can deliver common management practices, education and awareness-raising.
- Integrate and value ecosystem services into transboundary decision-making.
- Encourage best practice through innovation, appropriate solutions and community engagement.
- Business Implications in Practice
- Resources
- References
- Links
- Related Articles
Key messages
Water and energy are inextricably linked
• Both water and energy are essential to every aspect of life: social equity, ecosystem integrity and economic sustainability.
• Water is used to generate energy; energy is used to provide water.
• Both water and energy are used to produce crops; crops can in turn be used to generate energy through bio fuels.
Global energy and water demand are increasing
• Energy and water demands increase with income. At low income levels, energy and water are used for basic needs such as drinking, cooking and heating. But as income increases, people use more energy and water for refrigerators, swimming pools, transport, watering and cooling that meet their new lifestyle and diet needs.
• In an increasing spiral, demand for more energy will drive demand for more water; demand for more water will drive demand for more energy.
• Business, along with all parts of society, needs to continue to improve its water and energy efficiency to enable sustainable growth.
Both water and energy use impact and depend on Ecosystems
• Industrial, agricultural and domestic water and energy uses can have adverse impacts on ecosystems, including loss of habitat, pollution and changes in biological processes (such as fish spawning). Such ecosystem impacts also affect the amount of water or energy supplies available.
• Maintaining an environmental flow is critical to ensuring river systems can supply water to business and ecosystems.
• Water, energy and ecological footprints cannot be addressed in isolation.
Climate change will affect availability and use of both water and energy
• Climate change acts as an amplifier of the already-intense competition over water and energy resources.
• Mitigating climate change (i.e. reducing CO2 emissions) as well as adapting to inevitable climate change risk (i.e. becoming better able to cope with an uncertain future) need to be considered together.
• Impacts from climate change on both regional and global hydrological systems will increase, bringing higher levels of uncertainty and risk, with some regions more impacted than others.
• There is not only one appropriate mitigation or adaptation strategy – each situation will require the appropriate and sustainable use of water and energy resources locally.
• Adaptation can come at a mitigation cost, such as building more robust infrastructure that is climate resilient but can emit more greenhouse gases.
Technology, innovation, a sense of shared responsibility and political will are factors that bring real solutions as we strive to keep pace with increasing needs from a growing population
• Resolving growing issues surrounding water and energy priorities will require better and integrated policy frameworks and political engagement to address them satisfactorily for all stakeholders within and across watersheds;
• Leadership from all parts of society is a condition for change to happen;
We need:
- To get more energy out of each drop of water, and we need to get more water out of each unit of energy.
- Diversified energy mixes and alternative water supplies, e.g. industrial wastewater recycling, municipal wastewater reuse, desalination, even though these are energy intensive
- More natural infrastructure, such as rehabilitating wetlands and mangroves to mitigate flooding, thus reducing the impacts of climate change in optimal combination with the cost of engineered infrastructure.
Key policy directions
Water and energy policy need to be interlinked. Good governance and institutional capacity are needed, and business is willing to partner with policymakers, legislators, researchers and others to help achieve these recommendations.
Below are five areas where business recommends Policy Interventions.
Provide reliable climate change risk data, models and analysis tools.
Business needs reliable water, energy and climate change data, models and analysis tools in order to assess risk and make informed decisions or plans.
Reliable meteorological and hydrological data should be collected at the national, sub-national and watershed levels. The tools and systems used to collect and analyze these data need to be consistent.
Existing efforts around climate-risk data and Models have made significant progress over the years. However, gaps still remain.
- Data: There is a need for both in-situ (via data collection) and satellite observations. These must include a key assessment, both in the short- and long-term of the impacts of climate change, not only on water quality and quantity, but also water timing.
- Models: Better predictions and early warning systems about the effects of climate change at regional scale are increasingly needed. This includes greenhouse gas (GHG) effects on the hydrological cycle and precipitation patterns, which means understanding the complexity of the water cycle and aquatic ecosystems and how these react to climate change.
- Analysis tools: Interim management tools, such as scenario building, are necessary to be able to deal with the complexity of variables including climatic, economic, demographic and regional changes.
Integrate water and energy efficiency in measurement tools and policy.
Water and energy efficiency are linked, and this needs to be expressed clearly in measurement tools and policy. A comprehensive, common approach to water and energy efficiency measurement is needed.
- System design: The design of future water and energy systems needs to take into consideration the trade-offs and synergies between both resources. For example, a reduced water footprint (or impact) may, in one given case; result in reduced energy footprint, but in another case may result in an increased energy footprint.
- Measurement: A globally accepted measurement tool that quantifies water and energy efficiency throughout the life cycle would enable society to make more informed decisions about trade-offs. Such a tool would need to incorporate complex variables such as type and sustainability of the water withdrawal, as well as an understanding of the cost and benefit of different options.
- Policy: Policy needs to be long-term and flexible to allow for the use of the most appropriate approach that depends on local conditions. For example, in water abundant region it might be appropriate to reduce the energy footprint at the expense of increasing the water footprint, if this cannot be avoided. There is therefore a need for integrated river basin management that better takes into account energy and GHG emissions, as well as environmental values.
Ensure institutional capacities can deliver common management practices, education and awareness-raising.
Institutional capacities should be built to increase awareness about water-energy linkages, leading practices for energy efficiency and water conservation, as well as the effects of climate change.
- Business skills: Businesses can contribute their experience and knowledge about these linkages, and can also share their skills in marketing, communicating, capacity-building and training.
- Increased understanding: Water resource managers need to better understand energy and ecosystem linkages; likewise, energy producers need to better understand water and ecosystem linkages.
Integrate and value ecosystem services into transboundary decision-making.
The economic and social value of ecosystem services should be integrated into decision making around water, energy and climate change issues. In order to maintain and maximize flow to all users, water should be managed at a watershed level.
- Ecosystem balance: Ecosystems, such as well managed river basins and forests, control run-off and siltation and provide natural purification processes and regulate water flows.
- Energy security: There is very little (if any) information on how to ensure energy security while preserving ecosystem integrity in the face of climate change impacts.
- Market mechanisms: Market mechanisms, such as payments for ecosystem services, trading systems or certification standards, can be powerful complements to existing strategies for conserving ecosystems, if used in the right way.
- Ecosystem valuation: We are currently losing ecosystem services worth approx. 1.35-3.1 trillion(1012) EUR/year. To address this, we need further uptake and implementation of valuation tools that support decision-making that integrates the economic and social value of ecosystem services that are for now provided for free by nature.
Encourage best practice through innovation, appropriate solutions and community engagement.
Business can contribute to finding cost-effective and efficient ways of reducing water and/or energy consumption.
- Partnership: Business can bring research, technology and innovation to the table. However, these efforts are only fruitful when supported by science, government, civil society and legislation.
- Efficiency: Significant water and energy efficiency gains can be achieved by minimizing water losses in water supply systems, due to not only wasting the water itself, but also the energy used to pump and distribute it. Energy can be recovered in water and wastewater transport and treatment systems– heat, cooling and energy production. Efficient irrigation schemes can be used to save water. New cooling systems can be designed in power plants to have an optimal trade-off between water and energy requirements and impacts.
- Renewable energy: Renewable energy use can be encouraged for water treatment processes, as well as wastewater plants.
Business Implications in Practice
Real-world implications of the linkages between water, energy and climate change for business
Leading companies are already tackling water, energy and climate change issues in different ways, and will increasingly do so in the future. To have a look at some case studies showing how business is already doing this, please follow this link:
Resources
The Issues in this article are addressed in the report, Water, Energy and Climate Change: A contribution from the business community. Produced by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the report says water, energy and climate change are inextricably linked.
The WBCSD's Water Project brings together more than 70 companies from mining and metals, oil and gas, consumer products, food and beverages, infrastructure services, equipment and other sectors. The broad representation reflects that water is everybody’s business and that all businesses will face water challenges in the years ahead.
The paper lists five important policy recommendations from business to climate negotiators and policy-makers. These are:
- Provide reliable climate change risk data, models and analysis tools.
- Integrate water and energy efficiency in measurement tools and policy.
- Ensure institutional capacities can deliver common management practices, education and awareness raising
- Integrate and value ecosystem services (the benefits that nature provides to society, such as water and forest products) into trans-boundary decision-making.
- Encourage best practice through innovation, appropriate solutions and community engagement.
References
International Energy Agency (2006), World Energy Outlook 2006.
World Water Assessment Programme (2006), cited in United Nations Environment Programme (2007), Global Environment Outlook 4 (GEO4): Environment for development.
UNESCO International Symposium (2008), “Resolving the Water-Energy Nexus”, Draft Summary and Recommendations, 26 November 2008.
IUCN, Draft “Energy, Ecosystems and Livelihoods: Understanding linkages in the face of climate change impacts”, Dec 2008. www.iucn.org/about/work/initiatives/energy_welcome/index.cfm?uNewsID=1646
Braat, L., P. ten Brink, et al, “The Cost of Policy Inaction – the case of not meeting the 2010 biodiversity target”, Executive summary, May 2008.
US Department of Energy, Energy demands on water resources, Report to congress on the interdependency of energy and water, December 2006.
Scientific American, Earth3.0, Special Issue, “Energy vs. Water. Why both crises must be solved together”, October 2008, with amended data from GHD.
World Resources Institute. EarthTrends: Environmental Information. International Energy Agency (IEA) Statistics Division. 2007. Energy Balances of OECD Countries (2008 edition) and Energy Balances of Non-OECD Countries (2007 edition). Paris: IEA.
Cohen et al. (2004), cited in US Department of Energy, “Energy demands on water resources”, Report to congress on the interdependency of energy and water, December 2006.
IPCC Working Group III, “The Possible Role and Contribution of Hydropower to the Mitigation of Climate Change” Proceedings, January 2008.
WBCSD, Powering a Sustainable Future: An agenda for concerted action, Facts & Trends, 2006.
Gleick, Peter H., Water and Energy, Annual Review of Energy and the Environment 19 :267-99, 1994.
Khatib, Zara, “Produced Water Management: Is it a Future Legacy or a Business Opportunity for Field Development”, International Petroleum Technology Conference, 2007.
Gerbens-Leenes, P.W., A.Y. Hoekstra, Th.H. Van der Meer, “Water Footprint of Bio-energy and other primary energy carriers”, UNESCO-IHE Research Report Series No. 29, March 2008.
Energy Information Administration, 2006.
Gerbens-Leenes, P.W., A. Y. Hoekstra, Th. H. Van der Meer, “The Water Footprint of Bio-energy: global water use for bio-ethanol, bio-diesel, heat and electricity”, UNESCO-IHE Research Report Series No. 34, August 2008.
Links
WBCSD Report: Water, Energy and Climate Change: A contribution from the business community.
WBCSD Report: Powering a Sustainable Future: An agenda for concerted action. Facts & Trends, 2006
