Are the Water and Climate People Talking Yet?

The water sector’s flagship annual event, World Water Week, just wrapped up in Stockholm. Helvetas’ water technical advisor Christina Barstow shares her reflections on the buzzing talk among attendees, where the conference ignited new conversations, and the necessary dialogue that was missing.

This year’s conference was lively with discussions about the anticipated reductions by the host institution, Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), which included cutting three-quarters of its staff. This downsizing was partly due to cuts in Sweden’s overseas aid budget (a hot topic in Switzerland, too), though the topic sparked considerable debate among attendees, with many wearing “Don’t wash away SIWI” stickers on their badges.

Another significant topic was the recent release of a paper in the journal Science, which came out just one week before the conference. The paper’s notable finding—that an estimated 4.4 billion people lack access to safe drinking water—nearly doubles the Joint Monitoring Program's official figure of 2 billion people. This finding spurred much debate throughout the conference.

The conference had a fully packed schedule with the primary theme being “Bridging Borders: Water for a Peaceful and Sustainable Future.” Related topics included transboundary water cooperation, inclusive and participatory decision making, and water partnerships for collective action. With so much to choose from, I focused my time on themes related to the water-climate connection – an area Helvetas is always actively working to expand.

The water-climate nexus

“If climate change is the shark, then water is its teeth.” This metaphor, commonly used to explain the intricate connection between water and climate, captures the essence of how central water is to the climate crisis. Though I’m unsure who originally coined this phrase, it illustrates that many people will first and most acutely feel the impacts of climate change through water-related issues.

Climate change jeopardizes multiple facets of our water security, including increased frequency and intensity of floods and droughts, decreased water quality due to pollutant runoff, and the depletion of freshwater sources as sea levels rise. These effects disproportionately affect already vulnerable communities. In 2022, a severe monsoon season in Pakistan resulted in over 1,700 deaths and devastated more than four million acres of agricultural land—a tragedy Helvetas witnessed firsthand during our emergency response efforts. Helvetas also works to help communities adapt to rising sea levels in Bangladesh, where water sources are increasingly saline and could lead to the loss of up to 17% of agricultural land in Bangladesh by 2050. Furthermore, Lake Chad has dramatically reduced in size by 90% between 1963 and 1990, primarily due to diminished rainfall.

Many are surprised to learn that in some cases water is the source of damage to the climate—not the other way around. Water management is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for an estimated 10% of all emissions. Key contributors include rice cultivation (responsible for 10% of global methane emissions), energy consumption for treating domestic and industrial wastewater, and the degradation of "blue carbon ecosystems" like mangroves, seagrasses and salt marshes.

Increased spotlight on climate

Based on my previous attendance at World Water Week, this year held a notable increase in sessions and overall focus on the climate aspects of water. Climate resilience emerged as a major topic, with numerous sessions emphasizing specific resilience examples in regions such as the Asia-Pacific and the Himalayas. Nature-based solutions (NBSs) were also prominently featured, with discussions centering on enhancing water security through NBSs and evaluation tools for nature-based interventions.

One session that effectively underscored the connection between water and climate mitigation was titled “Water Solutions for a Resilient Net Zero Future.” This session aimed to demonstrate how water can simultaneously support human development, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, slow global warming, and enhance climate change resilience. Several opportunities within the water sector to mitigate or limit emissions were presented, including an Asian Development Bank program in Kiribati employing a photovoltaic power plant to offset emissions from a desalination plant; operational upgrades and methane and nitrous oxide emission processing initiatives by Xylem to address the 2% of greenhouse gas emissions from water and wastewater utilities; and ICAR-IIWM's use of alternate wetting and drying as a low-emission alternative to flood irrigation in rice production, which Helvetas has also implemented through our water productivity programs in Asia and Africa.

The conference’s missing links

The World Health Organization and UNICEF hosted a session on initiatives to develop climate-resilient water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) indicators. This project is crucial for integrating climate resilience into global monitoring strategies. JMP and GLASS should be commended for their efforts in creating these indicators, including their extensive call for resources and existing materials that could aid the development process. However, it was disappointing to learn that the project's focus is limited to adaptation, omitting measurements related to climate mitigation and emissions reductions. This exclusion raises concerns about potential gaps in addressing the complete climate resilience picture.

At an offsite event hosted by Virridy, the Millennium Water Alliance, and the Resilient Water Accelerator, the topic was use of the voluntary carbon credits market as a financing mechanism for water programs. The event emphasized potential carbon credit revenue of over $160 billion over the next decade. A memorable aspect for me was the informal event tagline “introducing the water people to the carbon sector;” in a few weeks, this group will travel to UN Climate week and “introduce the carbon people to the water sector.” This captured well what I felt was missing from the conference: a dialogue between carbon and water people.

We need more of this dialogue—and I wasn’t alone in this opinion. During a conversation with several conference attendees, we debated the pros and cons of policies related to carbon removal versus carbon offsetting. The conversation was spurred by discussion around the recent European Parliament, Green Claims directive which bans green claims solely on carbon offsetting schemes. This conversation led me to a "talk show" session on Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS), a negative emission technology highlighted in the IPCC report. However, the session shifted towards policy implications, discussing how BECCS's potential to decrease the carbon footprint could be compromised by its substantial water input requirements. A panelist pointed out that the "siloing" between the water and climate sectors presents a major obstacle in formulating effective policies on this issue.

What’s next?

In good news: I only need to wait another year to dive deeper into discussions about water and climate. The closing plenary revealed that next year's theme will be “Water for Climate Action.”

 At Helvetas, we’re excited to keep working harder to bridge the water-climate nexus and further combine this cross-cutting theme. Integrated approaches are an integral part of Helvetas’ commitment to creating long-lasting and sustainable programs, and we look forward to sharing our approach next year.

About the Author

Dr. Christina Barstow is the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Helvetas USA. Her career includes over 15 years of experience in research and implementation of water and energy programs across over a dozen countries in Africa and Asia. Christina is also a fellow at the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering and Resilience and the co-author of the recent report “Decarbonizing Water: Applying the Voluntary Carbon Market Toward Global Water Security.”