6 fixes for water & climate

6 fixes for water & climate – To start the New Year on the right foot and inspire some wins for the planet, this month we’ve rounded up six fixes for water and the climate. From a corporate sustainability paradigm shift to tackling low hanging fruit for food companies and pollution fixes for single-use cups & PFAS (a.k.a. forever chemicals) to maximising opportunities in Central Asia & Egypt.

We only have eight years left to limit global warming by 1.5°C – 2°C by 2100. So, every year matters. 2021 was not a good year – it was one of the hottest years on record, we had a lacklustre COP26, and natural disasters cost $280 billion, a third more than in 2020.  We need to make 2022 count and hopefully these fixes will help with that.

First up, an all-out fix, a paradigm shift in corporate sustainability to regeneration. For too long the narrative has focused on calculating carbon footprints and reducing these, but this isn’t aspirational. Carbon neutrality will not be a strategic differentiator for long.

Instead, companies should focus on handprints, deliberate actions that have a positive impact on the planet e.g., ocean plastic clean-ups, coral reef reconstruction says Dr. Simon J.D. Schillebeeckx, Co-founder of Handprint Tech. This will help with the alarming disconnect between corporate action, corporate disclosure and scientific reality. Plus, it will be a great differentiator and companies will be able to get their staff much more involved and excited.

Speaking about an alarming disconnect, the food industry consumes 70% of freshwater putting it at the centre of the world’s worsening water crisis but worryingly, most food companies are still underperforming on water. According to Ceres’ latest benchmarking study, the average company scored a mere 45/100.

Ceres’ Daniel Shepard shares more worrisome findings but also some low hanging fruit fixes for the companies such as a water risk assessment or to disclose a supplier policy.

How we consume our food and beverages needs fixing too. South Korea is set to implement a world first compulsory deposit return scheme for takeaway cups in a government bid to reduce pollution as the country uses 8.4 billion single-use cups per year – a high for the region.

With limited details on the scheme, Eco-Business’ Ng Wai Mun goes digging to find out as much as she can and gauges expert views and expectations. Does the scheme have the right stuff to be successful?

What if we go one step further to fix how we make our food packaging or clothes or cosmetics? We mean fixing our addiction to PFAS, a family of 5,000 chemicals used in nearly everything. These chemicals do not biodegrade but persist in water, in the environment and have been linked to illnesses.

But there’s some good news – though moving slowly things are at least moving and in the right direction with increasing global regulation of PFAS use and increasing litigation for contamination controversies. The risks are rising for the industry as Hélène Soyer Nogueira from Moody’s ESG Solutions lays out in our interview. What should companies do? Are there safer alternatives?

Next up, how governments can maximise opportunities like adjusting interregional trade and wastewater for water and climate gains. Central Asia is facing a worrisome mix of water challenges, but this also presents an opportunity for new collaborative interregional trade says Ioana Dobrescu from Water Footprint Implementation.

Trade can actually help the region move away from being a net water exporter. Currently, most export products have a high water footprint but low economic value providing limited monetary gains but sucking up the region’s water. Cotton is an area to address as the main contributor to water scarcity issues in the region. See what else Dobrescu recommends.

Egypt is another place facing water challenges but it recognises the opportunities, this time in wastewater. Wastewater has strategic importance as a source for irrigation; agriculture consumes around 80% of Egypt’s water. Despite this, the quality of this water has dramatically deteriorated and there are management bottlenecks.

According to Mohamed Tawfik, a researcher in this field, the crux of these issues is the lack of coordination or even recognition between the formal and informal sectors (socially embedded arrangements). See what Tawfik suggests as a fix.

That’s it on the fixes but before we end, we want to touch on one other thing, the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics. We have recently been inundated with requests to comment on whether or not it is wise for water stressed Beijing to make snow for the Winter Olympics. Bloomberg even cited an article we wrote here.

The fact of the matter is this … Beijing has made significant strides to alleviate its water stress by protecting its upper watershed & adding new water sources, with reclaimed water use almost doubling in the last decade to 1.2bn cubic metres. Reclaimed water accounted for 30% of Beijing’s water supply in 2020 & is set to rise in the 14FYP to 35% by 2025.

Such strategies have also been adopted by similarly water stressed Singapore where up to 40% of water supply is reclaimed water. So, if you not worried when Singapore adds another semiconductor factory, you shouldn’t worry when Beijing makes fake snow.

Basically, successful management of water resources can help reduce natural water stress and ensure water security – it can “be fixed”.

For other fixes deployed for the Winter Olympics see here – they include implementing the most advanced & water efficient snow making systems; completing a water transfer project to reduce groundwater use to make snow; and snow fields equipped with collection reservoirs to collect snow melt & rainfall.

Good luck to those competing at the Olympics and we wish everyone a Happy Lunar New Year! In our next newsletter we will be sharing our 5 Trends for the Year of the Tiger so make sure you’ve signed-up, it’s going to be a roaring one.