The links between water, energy and climate are interrelated and complex. Energy production requires vast quantities of water, which calls for significant amounts of energy. The consequent CO2 emissions are major drivers of climate change. Changes in any of these sectors will effect the other and increase the impact on land use, food production and transportation. Climate change affects the availability and quality of our water and the types of energy supplies that are sustainable and economically feasible.
Like excluding biodiversity, leaving water problems out of the equations and negotiations at COP15 could lead to serious scientific, political and social problems. There are several reasons this. What is not fully appreciated is the hydrological cycle and how overusing water can speed desertification, which in turn increases the impact on the climate.
I talked to Maude Barlow, who is the Senior Advisor to the President of the UN General Assembly and head of the Council of Canadians. She said that there were three main reasons that water should be included in climate negotiations:
- Climate Change is having an enormous impact on water around the world, with melting glaciers, the rapid evaporation of surface water, the overuse of ground water, and disappearing snow packs, available water is rapidly disappearing.
- Water is not just a victim of climate change, it is also a major cause of it. This is because our massive displacement of water from where it is needed in watersheds to maintain a healthy hydrologic cycle through growing crops in deserts, selling it off or sending it into big cities where we dump it with garbage and then into the ocean. (170 trillion liters a year from land based water systems into the oceans)
- Climate refugees are water refugees. They are the first and most devastated face of climate change. Industrialized countries are trying to set the same market based responses to climate change to water in the form of privatization and commoditization of water.
Dr Riccardo Petrella of the World Political Forum’s Scientific Committee says that in spite of the massive water problems facing humanity today “the future is not finished.” We must include three goals among the priorities of the world policy for a sustainable and lasting development:
- The human universal right to water
- The protection and safeguard of water resources on the planet as a common good, human heritage and essential to the functioning of ecosystems.
- A public, integrated, effective and united government of the planet’s water.
Dr. Petrella believes that the inclusion of water in the COP15 negotiations would provide many advantages. Most importantly it would be a positive sign in favor of the revaluation of the role of world common goods at the top of the agenda of strategies for attenuation and adaptation to climate change. In other words it would put the wellbeing of the public above private interests and competitive world markets. Which would leader to greater security and an “eco-nomy of justice and shared welfare.