Water Knowledge Europe Autumn Edition 2021 returns in its physical format in November
Over the last year, Water Europe has organized Water Knowledge Europe in a series of virtual events to keep everyone connected and informed, despite the pandemic. The wait is over now, Water Knowledge Europe event is finally coming up in its physical format, on November 9-10 at the BluePoint Center in Brussels.
Save the date and get ready for a 2-day event brimming with sessions and workshops dedicated to the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2021-2022. The event will be a great opportunity to learn more about the upcoming Calls of the 2022 HEU Programme and help you prepare the best project consortia. More info will be coming up soon.
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NEXOGENESIS project is now launched
This month, the NEXOGENESIS project officially kicked-off. On the 20th and the 21st of September, IHE Delft, the project’s coordinator hosted the digital kick-off meeting of the project with the participation of more than 60 people from all partners.
Over the next 4 years, the Horizon2020 funded project aims at supporting the development of policies that manages resources effectively. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are among tools to be used to assess the water-energy-food-ecosystem (WEFE) nexus in the new project.
Water, energy, food and ecosystems form an interconnected nexus that is central in providing resources and services needed to sustain human activity. The nexus is affected by changes in climate, precipitation, and land cover, as well as economic development, agriculture and urban growth. Currently, humans are extracting resources at a faster rate than they are replaced, thereby deepening resource and ecological deficits.
The complex water-energy-food nexus is poorly understood, and ecosystems are often not considered as an integral part of the system. In addition, policies for each sector are often developed in isolation, with insufficient consideration of the impact on the WEFE nexus. This poses a challenge that stakeholders, policy makers and academics engaged in NEXOGENESIS will help address by developing and validating a coherent cross-sectoral policy-making framework that addresses climate and socioeconomic change, as well as stakeholder behaviour and transboundary issues.
“With four case studies in Europe and one in southern Africa, strong stakeholder engagement and output validation, NEXOGENESIS is expected to contribute enhanced cooperation, improved policy making processes and better policies,” said project leader Janez Susnik, IHE Delft Senior Lecturer in Water Resources Management.
The project is coordinated by IHE Delft, bringing together a consortium of 20 partners, who will support the development of policies that address the nexus interconnectedness at several levels to manage resources effectively and avoid conflicts between users. For more information, please click here.
Read MoreInterview with Andrej Vizjak, Slovenian Minister of the Environment and Spatial Planning
What are the main priorities of the Slovenian Presidency and what is the role of water in realising them?
The main priorities of Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU (PSEU) are the reinforcement of the EU immunity, the increase of EU strategical autonomy and encouragement of green and digital transition with and for the new generation. Therefore, water, as the main life source, is at the centre of pursuance of the mentioned priorities.
The European Union is committed to achieving the new climate target by 2030. What are the actions and measures you consider necessary for reaching this goal?
The EU Climate Law is an important milestone towards the new 2030 climate target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55%. To reach it, it is important to take immediate action. We should strive for an ambitious, but also fair and realistic agreement if we want to maintain climate neutrality by 2050 as an achievable goal. This also means that all the EU Member States at all levels, systems and sub-systems must commit to implementing policies, measures and activities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in all sectors. Furthermore, we must not forget to create a climate-resilient society that also takes into account the most vulnerable households.
The slogan of the Slovenian Presidency is “Together. Resilient. Europe.” How can the role of water be recognised as a key enabler for strengthening the resilience of the EU and facilitating its transition to a strong post-COVID Europe?
The slogan, PSEU “Together. Immunity. Europe”, offers a strong basis to increase cooperation of responsible management of water, coastal and sea sources on local, governmental, cross-border, regional and EU level. The health of the population is strongly connected with the quality of water supply, food production, recreation and tourism. Due to the changes in the dynamics of the water circle, the areas where the lives of the people are threatened by the water, are expanding. The governments and European Commission are addressed to strengthen the dialogues on local and cross-border levels for the implementation of the adjusting measures, coordinated on the cross-border levels, to strengthen the immunity of EU and support the transmission into strong “Post Covid EU”. Therefore, the “bottom-up and top-down approach” for the preparation and pursuance of RBMP, ICZM and MSP must be strengthened.
A paradigm shift towards a Water-Smart society, where the true value of water is recognised and realised is a must to ensure a lasting recovery of the EU. Which ones do you consider as the strongest tools and instruments of the EU in its effort to achieve this goal?
We are aware that the shift to the paradigm “Pametna družba za ravnanje z vodo/Water Smart Society” to help the European recuperation means that the value of water must be recognized and considered. Water is an ecosystem, a cross-border source and medium, which has to be considered by the new tools and instruments. For the preparation of plans (RBPMP/ICZM/MSP) of the new generation and to provide a fair and effective solution, water cycle, water balance and ecosystem services have to be considered. This kind of approach offers a great opportunity to integrate the young population (digitalisation) and with the activation of “the bottom up” approach cooperation, noticeably increases the pursuance of the adjusting measures on a local scale and creates new job opportunities.
Read MoreThe new CDP tool “Water Watch” ranks the most water-intensive sectors – Which are they?
On the 25th of August 2021, the environmental reporting company CDP released its Water Watch. The first of its kind tool ranks over 200 industrial activities, according to their potential impact on water resources – both, in terms of water quantity and water quality.
The impact of businesses on freshwater resources is assessed on different stages of the value chain on behalf of over 200 activities, making up a classification system based on the Bloomberg Industry Classification Systems (BICS). Amongst the sectors found to have the largest impact on water resources, are the apparel and textile manufacturing sector, cotton farming, livestock farming, oil and gas extraction and mining.
The Water Impact Index Water Watch contributes to the solidification of the scientific basis, the starting point for action equipping investors, businesses, and policy makers with “the information required to trigger the transformation needed” (Cate Lamb, Global Director of Water Security at CDP).
Read MoreFAO launches practical tools to encourage soil organic carbon sequestration
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has recently launched two practical instruments designed to encourage soil organic carbon maintenance and sequestration, a key tool for climate action. “Healthy soils are crucial for sustainable agri-food systems” said the FAO Director-General QU Dongyu.
Carbon sequestration involves the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the form of soil organic carbon (SOC), with the capture of CO2 in the soil seen as an effective way of reducing greenhouse gases. Because soil rich in carbon is also healthier and more fertile, it can benefit farmers while helping meet the targets of the Paris Agreement on climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals.
The two products unveiled today, part of the RECSOIL initiative, are a global map illustrating how much and where CO2 can be sequestered by soils, the GSOCseq, and a technical manual of good practices to sequester and maintain SOC stocks in soils.
“We must look for innovative ways to transform our agri-food systems to more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable. Healthy soils are critical to achieving this,” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu told the opening session of the ninth Global Soil Partnership (GSP) Plenary Assembly. Learn more about the practical tools for recarbonizing global soils here.
Read MoreNew IPCC report shows how the water cycle is highly impacted by a faster global warming
Today, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its report, during the press conference, for Policymakers of the Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report, Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis.
The report is based on 14,000 scientific publications assessed from 65 countries. It already stressed every regions facing increasing changes with a faster warming. “Unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5°C or even 2°C will be beyond reach.” Going beyond the challenge of CO2 reduction, the report – in its chapter 8 – stresses the current impacts of climate change on water and the future challenges:
– “Modifications of Earth’s energy budget by anthropogenic radiative forcing drive substantial and widespread changes in the global water cycle.
– A warmer climate increases moisture transport into weather systems, which, on average, makes wet seasons and events wetter (high confidence).
– Warming over land drives an increase in atmospheric evaporative demand and the severity of droughts (high confidence).
– Human-caused climate change has driven detectable changes in the global water cycle since the mid-20th century (high confidence)
– Greenhouse gas forcing has driven increased contrasts in precipitation amounts between wet and dry seasons and weather regimes over tropical land areas (medium confidence), with a detectable precipitation increase in the northern high latitudes (high confidence).
– Anthropogenic aerosols have driven detectable large-scale water cycle changes since at least the mid-20th century (high confidence)
– Land-use change and water extraction for irrigation have influenced local and regional responses in the water cycle (high confidence)
– Southern Hemisphere storm tracks and associated precipitation have shifted polewards since the 1970s, especially in the austral summer and autumn (high confidence)”
Paired with the WRI projected 56% deficit in water supply relative to demand by 2030, the future water cycle changes, directly linked to the global warming, confirm the necessity to build a Water-Smart Society to protect, maintain and make resilient our water infrastructures to ensure water availability for all with the right quality:
– “Without large-scale reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, global warming is projected to cause substantial changes in the water cycle at both global and regional scales (high confidence).
– Increased evapotranspiration due to growing atmospheric water demand will decrease soil moisture over the Mediterranean, southwestern North America, south Africa, southwestern South America, and southwestern Australia (high confidence).
– Water cycle variability and extremes are projected to increase faster than average changes in most regions of the world and under all emission scenarios (high confidence).
– There are contrasting projections in monsoon precipitation, with increases in more regions than decreases (medium confidence).
– Precipitation associated with extratropical storms and atmospheric rivers will increase in the future in most regions (high confidence).
– The seasonality of precipitation, water availability and streamflow will increase with global warming over the Amazon (medium confidence) and in the subtropics, especially in the Mediterranean and southern Africa (high confidence)”.
Read MoreExploring human behaviour to meet the EU Green Deal objectives
Creating a climate-neutral and resource-efficient European economy requires a deep transformation of energy, mobility and food systems, as well as a change in production and consumption practices. Such profound change will impact both individuals and society. At the same time, the transition to sustainability will not succeed if people do not support it by adapting their behaviour and consumption patterns. This would imply change towards ‘sustainable behaviour’.
The recent study published by the Scientific Foresight Unit (STOA) of the European Parliament, explores the prospects of aligning citizens’ behaviour with the objectives of the European Green Deal in the domains of food consumption and mobility. It identifies key challenges and possibilities in each domain and explores how technological solutions can help people adapt to sustainable behaviour in alignment with the objectives of the European Green Deal.
🔹 How do people decide how to use vital resources like energy and water? The answers to these questions are complex, as they are affected by many factors. Availability, access, price and quality of sustainable options are critical; but other, less visible factors, such as peer behaviour and cultural context, are equally important.
🔹 Require great attention when designing interventions and campaigns to help bridge the divide between good intentions and action. For example, helping people plan better to reduce food waste, removing the hassle of switching to a green energy tariff, providing easy substitutes to medicinal wildlife products, or providing timely reminders and tips for reducing water consumption are all strategies which can help turn green aspirations into green actions.
🔹 A quick glance at agricultural production demonstrates that people’s choice of a diet has climate and environmental footprint: water pollution with nutrients and pesticides, freshwater withdrawals => growing water scarcity.
🔹 Organically-managed soils are more resilient to water stress and nutrient loss, and thus can counter soil degradation. Organic agriculture does not pollute water like conventional agriculture.
🔹 Technological options => creating awareness (labelling, databases, virtual farming, footprint calculators …), connecting farmers and consumers, making sustainable consumption easy, enhancing trust, making sustainable consumption fun, social and attractive.
Read MoreChallenges and options to measure progress in agricultural water management explained
Measuring policy progress on agriculture and water policies is essential to help decision makers identify necessary policy changes and understand how further progress may be achieved to improve agricultural water management.
The OECD has recently published a report Measuring progress in agricultural water management Challenges and practical options to review existing evaluations of agriculture and water policies and suggests three types of progress to be measured: policy design, policy implementation capacity and policy results. The quality and robustness of these measures of policy progress depends upon three main factors.
1. Assessment of policy design requires matching policy alignment with cross cutting objectives or with a reference text.
2. Assessment of progress in implementation capacity requires gauging evolution towards predefined capacity needs or identified governance gaps.
3. Evaluation of policy results requires clearly defined objectives, timelines and scales for assessments.
Seven practical options are identified for applying these principles to agriculture and water policies, illustrated by applying them to assessing progress in the sustainable management of water for irrigation under climate change and in controlling diffuse nutrient pollution. To learn more, read the full paper here.
Read MoreExploring the Water-Energy Nexus Publication of the final report for the Assessment
The final report for the Assessment and Communication of Relevant EU-funded Projects Supporting the Market Uptake of Energy Efficiency Measures in Industry and Services prepared by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) has been published.
The report evaluates the impact of 41 projects receiving funding from the Intelligent Energy-Europe II (IEE-II) programme (2007-2013) and the Energy Efficiency calls within the Horizon 2020 programme (2014-2020). To learn more about this project and the results obtained please click here. The final report for the Assessment and Communication of Relevant EU-funded Projects Supporting the Market Uptake of Energy Efficiency Measures in Industry and Services can be seen here.
Read MoreFirst Calls for Proposals of LIFE 2021-2027 launched
On 13 July, the first LIFE Call for Proposals opened under the new LIFE programme 2021-2027, which comprises four sub-programmes: nature & biodiversity, circular economy and quality of life, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and the clean energy transition. This first LIFE Call for Proposals 2021 offers a budget of over 580€ million to fund new projects.
The conservation of nature and biodiversity, including water ecosystems, remains a decisive area of action for the LIFE Program. A new type of projects, strategic nature projects, are introduced to support programmes of action in the Member States for the mainstreaming of nature and biodiversity policy objectives into other EU policies and to ensure that relevant funds are leveraged to implement these objectives.
Moreover, the LIFE programme 2021 – 2027 continues its substantial support to projects related to the implementation of air and water quality plans and legislation at a local, regional, national and trans-national level.
For more information, please contact Andrea Rubini
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