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Paris, water and resilience

Increasing water resilience is a vital area for action across the world. The Paris Agreement on climate change could be the catalyst for both improved water resilience and reduced water-related energy use in our cities, supporting progress towards a low carbon future.

The agreement is particularly pertinent to the water sector because pumping and treating water and wastewater is very energy intensive. The sector also consumes considerable amounts of material resources to deliver infrastructure improvements. Additionally, many climate change impacts manifest as changes in the water environment; cities and urban areas not only have the most intensive water demands but are most exposed to the impacts of water-related risks – floods and droughts. Because of this, many are driving change towards more resilient water services.

This was evident at the Paris conference where in addition to national governments and their intended contributions, we heard about various other initiatives and commitments being made around the world by regional governments, cities and businesses.

One example is the Paris Pledge for Action, initiated by the French COP21 Presidency. One thousand organisations including water companies and industrial water users have committed to reduce emissions, build resilience now, and to meet or exceed targets before 2020. Another is the RE100 global initiative, which announced that 53 multi-national companies – many of which are also large users of energy and water – have committed to sourcing 100 per cent of their electricity from renewable energy.

The Business Alliance for Water and Climate Change, a group of businesses concerned about worsening water stress and climate change, launched the Paris Declaration on Water and Climate Action. Its signatories committed to measure and minimise water risks through collaborative working.

Many water sector organisations are progressing innovative ways to meet service outcomes by engaging in collaborative networks. Examples include collaboration with third parties to implement catchment-level rather than end-of-pipe solutions, and advanced technologies to recover increasing amounts of energy from sludge. To maximise carbon reduction, we must combine such approaches with greater material efficiency – for example, instead of building our way out of flood risk with more concrete flood walls or addressing water supply deficits with large transfer pipelines, we devise leaner solutions combining some construction with other smart measures.

The sector is also doing more to protect citizens from increasing risks of droughts and flooding. The Paris Pact on Water and Climate Change Adaptation represents a coalition of nations, river basin organisations and businesses who have committed and secured substantial funding, to implement adaptation plans, strengthen water monitoring and measurement systems in river basins, promote financial sustainability and new investment in water systems management.

Combining water initiatives with more efficient energy, transport initiatives, efforts to eliminate waste and to create greener public spaces will bring us closer to a truly integrated urban infrastructure. For example, the demand to improve ‘green infrastructure’ is now leading to more integrated and resilient solutions to managing surface water.

The Paris Agreement will speed up the process of delivering low carbon and climate resilience infrastructure essential to the rising populations living and working in cities. The water sector must continue playing a leading role in delivering on the commitments.

 

 Adrian Johnson, technical director and sustainability expert, MWH

 

Resilience