Attachments
01 A Provocation
WHAT? The world is at a crossroads. Business-as-usual is damaging what the water cycle can deliver to ensure sustainable development for all.
This requires a new framework that goes beyond conventional economic thinking to adopt a systems approach to water, the economy and societies, including full consideration of the diverse colours of water — blue water (rivers, aquifers, lakes and water storages) and green water (the water in soils – soil moisture – supporting all vegetation and evaporation from land) and across geographical scales. It is based on the knowledge that water shapes transformational economic, sociocultural, ecological and environmental change.
WHY? The water cycle is one of the essentials for all life on Earth and for a just, sustainable and resilient economy. It is a global common good linking all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is deeply interconnected with biodiversity and the climate while providing a stable foundation for human well-being and ecosystem health, and hence is a necessity for socioeconomic and ecological prosperity.
Many intractable sustainable development challenges stem from the systemic water crisis of having too little, too much and too dirty water.
Humans have been altering the global water cycle for centuries, but the new challenge facing the world is that we are now changing the source of all freshwater — precipitation. This alteration is caused by climate and environmental change at the regional and global level, combined with the local changes of the water cycle, caused by misuse and overdraft. The key drivers of this crisis include increasing population, economic development, resource-intensive or inefficient technology, urbanisation, deep underinvestment, corruption, climate change and inequitable and irrational consumption. Existing economic, legal, institutional and political barriers hamper policy making for sustainable water governance from the local to the global level. Without a change in how we manage water and the economy, the water crisis will deepen, exacerbating existing inequalities and injustice. Millions already die each year from consuming contaminated water and food. An additional 1.3 billion people could become severely food insecure by 2050 from heat stress and water insecurity with irreparable loss of ecosystems and biodiversity under business-as-usual. A failure to control water withdrawals and consumption will magnify climate risks and accelerate the biodiversity crisis, affecting the well-being of the poor and the rich alike.
The global economy and most contemporary societies inadequately consider our: deep cultural, faith and historical relationships with water, the many non-market values (e.g. cultural, relational, ecological) of water, economic and livelihood interdependencies with the water cycle, and the multiple economic sectors and end-uses of water. Universal and equitable access to water is as critical as access to food, energy and health systems.
Past and current responses to the water crisis are embedded in locked-in legacy institutional arrangements that are not fit-for-purpose at the local to the global across time and space. The Stern (2007) and Dasgupta (2021) reports have outlined the economic and all-of society thinking, and actions needed to respond to climate change and biodiversity loss. Building on those reports and going beyond, we highlight how collective action failures linked to water might be overcome and provide a critical missing link between the implementation of the sustainable development, climate action and biodiversity agendas.
HOW? The response is to value and govern the water cycle as a global common good because every country needs a stable water cycle, climate system and healthy ecosystems. This interconnectedness makes water a critically important global asset that can only be secured through collective action across the entire world. Here, we diagnose the water crisis, emphasise the costs of inaction and present the elements of a new framework for the economics of water and beyond for a safe and just water future. Our report is a first step, to open multidimensional and multi-level dialogues to accelerate local, national and regional actions, initiate global negotiations and co-create a compact for water as a global common good. This compact will be based on a series of societal dialogues across multiple communities and stakeholders in 2023–24 to deliver a framework for actions that: rethink policies, revise regulations and reallocate water to deliver affordable access for all. This approach demands “systems thinking” that fully accounts for Earth Systems; new governance with a focus including justice and equity; an improved financial and knowledge architecture; methods to respond to governance and institutional lock-ins; sharing and diffusion of contextual innovation and technology; incentives to account for non-market values; and widespread adoption of water accounting and valuation. In sum, it demands a global transformational change using water as an elemental and organising principle.