Join us for an important discussion at this year’s Stockholm World Water Week! The Global Commission on the Economics of Water (GCEW) and the Government of the Netherlands co-convened this session to discuss GCEW’s preliminary findings in Turning the Tide, and how we can shift away from unsustainable development in regards to water management. This dialogue looked at re-imagining multilateralism, economic institutions, production and consumption, subsidies, water allocation and trade – all in order to safeguard the global water cycle within safe planetary boundaries.
Welcome to this debate on the findings of the global Commission on the economics of water uh focusing on how we can restore the global Water Cycle now my name is I’m a former un UT representative for the Netherlands and I am above all very delighted to be your
Moderator for today uh also can I say it’s uh it’s Thursday already so some days have passed but we’re here we’re here with quite a lot of people and your faces are brighter than I expect them to be on one of those last days of a busy
Week like this one so I’m very happy to see that uh now I just want to make sure that everyone can also understand me this is not a silent session as you can hear uh but there is interpretation available for whoever needs it uh yeah for the people here in the room you
Probably know it by now but there’s the interpret FY app so please turn it on if you want to listen in into another language but to our online audience it’s good to mention that if you want to use interpretation then please go to the session stream and click on the
Interpretation tag that is added on the bar below and then you can select the language that you want to listen into so now that hopefully everyone can understand me I’ll say welcome once again now um I don’t know about you guys but it’s been a busy week I think for
Most uh and having walked around and attended many different session there is one thing that I recurringly heard everyone was mentioning it if we want to stand any chance of solving the water uh crisis that we’re dealing with we’re going to need systemic change we’re going to have to need to change the
Rules of the game that we’re operating in um which is ever so necessary I mean I don’t have to tell you guys you are the experts and you know this already but we know that if we don’t solve water we won’t solve anything we’ll fail in everything we’ll feel in climate we’ll
Feel in security we’ll feel in uh eliminating hunger and so many things so we know how vital is how how vital it is that we do that and also how vital it is that we do that from this broader perspective where we really look at the system that we’re operating in um and
Luckily that is exactly what the global Commission on the econ economics of water has been doing they’ve been cracking their brains about how we can redefine the way we value and govern water for the common good which is you know about repurposing subsidies it’s about looking at the way in which we use
Accountancy it’s about internalizing externalities the way in which we govern water multilaterally and about so much more um so that is really uh uh a good first step if you would ask me in the right direction now all those preliminary findings have been shared in the turning the tide report which was
Mandatory reading for today so can I ask everyone can I can I actually I’m actually really curious will you stand if you have read the turning the tide report if you if you remain seated you have an issue guys just so you know okay oh but that’s really good somebody’s
Applauding I’m very happy but now I got you because before we start we uh we’re starting late because we’re going to do a pop quiz with everyone I’m just kidding you won’t be graded for this session but I’m actually really happy to see the amount of people that have read
It if you haven’t don’t worry because we will be diving into the outcomes of the report today uh so uh yeah don’t worry there will be much more that will be shared about the outcomes of that report with you um now before we do that and
Before we dive into the uh the first Keynotes that we have planned for today today I would like to call somebody forward that can tell us a little bit more about the aim of the session today more about the outcomes and more about how we move forward to share his his
Perspective on that and then I am of course talking about none other than the one and only Hank oing the first ever special Envoy for International Water Affairs of the kingdom of the Netherlands so please give him a big round of applause Hank welcome thank you haar uh it’s
Actually Hank oink looking for a job you know like the the purple circle on LinkedIn that people do uh looking to network hey but but Hank we’ve gathered here today uh and I’m actually really curious to hear from you we’ve all convened here um what would you say
Would make a a perfect aim for this session what should we walk away with in the next hour and a half I think two important things one although you read the turning the title report in majority not everybody so we want to make sure that you know what this is about but
Also what the commission’s work will be about in the year it still has looking at the economy through the waterlands rethinking how water works for everything we value and want to achieve politic the politics and the connection between politics economy and water and how important it is but
Also understand better how water works because it is individual as we know from the was agenda it is is local in our communities in our cities it’s regional connected to our river basins trench boundary our acers it’s Continental it’s also Global water connects and impacts positively and negatively so this whole
Story of what this the commission is trying to set forward in helping us rethink our economic thinking and acting and validation and evaluation and the politics of that is key the second and I’m not going to talk more because we have Richard dmana and Y rockr from the commissioner going to
Be you know telling all about that uh the other thing is the commission has a year to go and that is also a year of making connections so getting feedback and interaction and uh uh understand better from all those scales and layers how this actually work so it’s research
Yes but it’s also figuring out how such a interaction with the world and it’s a large word because there are many actors stakeholders at all scales how that could work and how we can build coalitions because beyond the commission this should not be a report that’s on a
Desk but should this should change the way how private sector how public sector how individuals how financiers are changing the way how they deal with water in the context of of their business in the context of the economics the politics the environment and so forth and that cannot happen by the
Commission that has to happen beyond the commission so we will set forward this this start of these interaction and you are key of course you’re part of the it’s interesting I look at a a lake of a void so everybody’s sitting on the side so it’s like very interesting like in a
School glass everything either sits in the back or on the sides it’s happening here again so it’s nice um but uh you are predominantly from the water sector uh and we heard this the whole week how can the water sector ensure that they start to talk the language of
Food of health of climate of Agriculture of energy uh of Finance uh uh of politics and that is it if you’re embarking on that mission you’re also helping in the interaction of what the commission can achieve yeah more much more yeah no but no thank you and
Actually basically uh in other words you should move more towards the Wile middle to each other you don’t have to do it now that would be chaotic but uh I like how you indeed analyze the room as well with people sitting in our sides and how
We often tend to do that as humans but we really should come I think we should also say the commission uh is a third in line of two already achieved uh reviews The Economic Review the economics on climate by Professor Stern the economics on biodiversity by Professor dasgupta this
Is the third in line but we don’t have a Stern or a dasgupta we have a commission and the commission is co-chaired by four co-chairs and can can you tell us more about that no I want to miname them because Yan rockstrom is one of the co-chairs who’s here but we also have
Mariana matato Economist based in London tan shanmugaratnam former prime minister former deputy prime minister and Senior Minister for Singapore possibly president uh and neosa the direct current director general of the World Trade Organization and they together with a commission of close to 20 people Mayors economists environmentalists uh people from the UN
From the bank from Finance from Community from indigenous from youth form together this commission and it’s good to hear that within the commission we try already to have a wider view uh as the widest view as possible but those interactions also have to come from that
Group yeah no no thank you for that addition definitely and uh I actually wanted to tap into that because you were you were mentioning right that it’s actually a third in line if you look at it in that way uh but then indeed in the form of a commission um to the people
That were still seated that didn’t read the turning the tide report could you maybe in a nutshell uh shed some light on uh in your perspective what some of the most important outcomes things to take away are from those preliminary findings well the turning the tide
Report it’s is like a call to action on seven levers and you already mentioned them so uh uh I think the most important part of those seven levers are one I already said it water is beyond local it’s on all those scale including the global scale and that’s with uh atmospheric
Rivers impacting continents the way we degrade biodiversity develop our lands our infrastructure and exacerbated by climate is impacting across contines our economies our environment our societies and therefore our politics uh and that’s different because that another point of the commission means that we have to act
On all those levels and we don’t we have weak water authorities on the local level weak utilities we have weak water governance on the national uh we always position trans boundary this morning again it’s like trans Boundary Water confination is peace and security way no over 90% of transboundary water Corporation is just
Doing Water Management right together it’s not about war the Netherlands and and Germany work together on water and it’s not about the war it’s about Water Management so the moment we position uh transboundary water management only in the bucket of peace and security we fail so understanding how that works is a
Second so um there is a massive amount of money going to the wrong stuff ipcc report climate change in land actually says 99% of global Investments increase climate change and make us more vulnerable if we look at those subsidies targeted at for instance food and agriculture that are uh extracting water
At a rate and a scale unprecedented so eating away all the fresh water we have and I’m not sure ass sure it’s the most uh prominent for the commission and report but it is for me yeah we lose our fresh water we lose our fresh water at a
Rate we don’t understand so our glaciers melt our our our our polar ice melts we pollute the water and we extract it from our acers acers that are depleted Beyond tipping points and it means that the freshwater available for a growing demand in a growing economy in a growing
Society yeah is unsustainable so we have to change many of those LS with governance also with missions that are are not checking the Box policy and regulations but are really driving it the SGS are are a mission agenda we don’t we see them as a mission agenda
The only thing we do is oh those sdgs have targets let’s see if we can achieve them with that we will never get words of Mariana matsukado to the moon and with that mission achievement bring everything else so this movement that the commission wants to create in the
Context of mission orientation is Way Beyond water management is way Beyond water security it’s really helping us change our economies around the world absolutely thank you so much for sharing that uh Hank you will’ll be back with us at the end but can we get a big round of
Applause for him thank you so much Hank oing and absolutely uh it’s also about changing the way we value it and how we look at it uh I think that’s also a perfect bridge that you’ve given me in a way uh to go to our two speakers of
Today as you mentioned we have Dr Yan rrom and we have uh Dr Rich de Mania with us uh today and uh they will set the scene a little bit more so uh Yan will speak a little bit more about the hydrological cycle and we have Richard
Who will speak a little bit more on the economics behind it um so um please listen in closely also uh listen closely but also write down if you have any questions as Hank said uh the commission has a year to go this is also about getting insights in here that might be
Missing in the report that might be missing in what’s out there right now so write them down and uh there’s enough room to ask them later so we’d love to hear uh from you as well uh with that respect uh and now with that being said
I would like to ask for a very big round of applause for Dr Yan rrom who is the director of The bdam Institute for climate impact research and co-chair of the global Commission on the economics of water and now you may go thank you so much so following on On
Hank for the first time in human history we are today as humans changing the very source of our lifeblood we’re changing the source of precipitation but the fundamental Focus that we normally have is on water as a victim of climate change not recognizing that water is actually a
Driver of stability on planet Earth but just to walk through very quickly the fact that it is a victim today even the devastation and the disaster on Hawaii right as we speak is actually fundamentally about water it dries out it gets so flammable that the whole island causes disaster through fires the
Floods we’ve experienced all the way up in Sweden Slovenia across the world China are all a hydrological cycle that is powered up from a warmer ocean in a super en n year the third one actually over the past 25 years 1998 2016 2023 natural variability Amplified by human
Caused climate change causing out of normal four or five standard deviations outside of normal distribution of extremes heat waves droughts forest fires in Canada causing air pollution all the way down to New York we have the heat records across the entire planet this super andin New Year all this is
Related to water because the temperatures evaporate the water causing dyri conditions the cause behind the trigger of fires the world weather attribution program if you haven’t seen it really check out this website they’ve now concluded that it’s virtually impossible to explain these extremes without factoring in human induced
Changes of the climate system but they don’t recognize that behind the scenes it’s always about freshwater part of driving the extreme but also generally being the attribute of the fundamental impact the victim part that is why we in the earth system Sciences for the past 20 years have focused on what are the
Big systems that regulat the stability the livability of the earth system of the nine planetary boundaries fresh waterer is one of the boundaries in 2020 2015 in the second update we were still focusing on Blue Water the maximum allowed of withdrawals and consumptive water in the rivers in the transboundary
River basins that we’ve been focusing so much on we’ve moved on scientifically several research groups around the world have now integrated both green water and blue water in the planet boundary assessment concluding that we’re outside at the safe operating space on both green and blue water what I’ll show you next is an
Unpublished graph it will be coming out in the New York climate week the third scientific update of the planetary boundary science so I plead with you not to spread out on Twitter immediately after this session but here you are six of the nine planetary boundaries are
Outside of the safe space we are in a real dire Global crisis on climate on biodiversity and on freshwater both the green and blue water freshwater boundaries are considered to be outside of the realm of natural variability of the whole horological cycle as we’ve experienced it over the past 10,000
Years this is a real serious situation because we’re starting to understand just as HK pointed out the scale interactions the Earth commission have done an critical scrutiny of this work I just show you here that essentially all scientific assessments Today Show that water is outside of the green safe space
So here you have the planet boundary SS and the Earth commission assessing both surface water groundwater green water flows all of them end up concluding in the yellow to Red Embers of risk assessment so this is where we are and just a reminder that it’s all about the
Global biological cycle it is about the partitioning of precipitation into green flows soil moisture that turns into evapor transpiration The Vapor flow the big Flux Of The glob biological cycle 70,000 cubic kilometers of the total 110,000 and the blue runoff flows and the whole dynamic finite cycle powered
Roughly half from the ocean and half from the land in the input of the global Water economics commission we’ve now for the first time been able to model what are the quantities of fresh water both from green and blue that drive all the Assets in the economies country by
Country by mapping out particularly the green water flows this is done by work that Marin FAL Mark and colleagues around the world have been doing for decades on partitioning green and blue water flows and the functions they provide to humanity from everything from ecological functions food but of course
Also domestic industrial use of water and how much we’ve manipulated that across the world but what I want to focus on quickly here is actually on what water does to keep the climate system stable the global carbon project uh estimates that three gigatons of carbon per year is sequestered on
Terrestrial ecosystems on land this is normally talked of only as a kind of a dry carbon number 25% of our Global emissions it’s not three carbon dioxide it’s three gatons of carbon 25% of global emissions now this varies very very much each year and the reason for this is the variability
In precipitation and we’re today seeing worrying signs of this causing uh a point where the terrestrial ecosystems no longer help us but rather coming as you see on the right hand graph close to zero and the reason for this is a combination of rising extreme events related to precipitation droughts floods
And also larger share of land use change so the the the kind of broader conclusion is can we really count on landbased ecosystems in the future as carbon sinks to help us in the transition towards a safe climate Landing this is water economics in its ultimate extreme what is the value of
Water for the economy but we’re also mapping out in the economics commission the So-Cal precipitation sheds where does the precipitation come from the origins of land that provides downwind freshwater to countries and regions in the world and this has been done for the first time with data and methods that we
For a long time uh did not have which is linking Global Climate models with atmospheric River assessments and I just give you one example here on Germany showing in blue the sources of precipitation over Germany but look in red where Germany is exporting its rainfall towards the east and we now can
Do this mapping across the world and what you see on this map is for the first time our assessment in dark blue of the regions that are the prime receivers of precipitation from upwind evaporation green water flows flowing as atmospheric Rivers just look at China depending a upwind from Russia the whole
Argentinian uh region Uruguay dependent on the Upstream healthy state of the the Amazon rainforest losing these would mean a geopolitical imbalance in terms of provision of freshwater here are the source regions in dark darkest uh green and this just proves the point that water is a global common good water is
Not something that we can lock in on a local level we have to manage it as a collective good so that’s why we in the commission published a piece arguing for defining water as a global common good we’ve even started to map country uh Imports in green and exports in in
Orange look at Brazil for example a country that has a massive export of water providing fresh water to downwind countries what other countries are are roughly a 50 50% Import and Export but this just shows how interconnected all countries are in the world so coming back to Hank’s point at the start here
On the seven conclusions on the turny the tide report that you know by heart one of them is Define water as a global common good govern it as a collective action because we’re putting the whole source of fresh water at risk the stability of the planet at risk and we
Are so interdependent neighbor by neighbor Beyond transboundary Rivers actually on atmospheric River level and that requires a fundamental change in our economic thinking on water thanks that is that is perfect thank you so much thank you so much for shedding light on it Johan if I may ask you uh
One more question uh did you know you were perfect in time that’s you were I know I I know I was doing the walking towards you but I always do that like couple of minutes before and we decided like was it two minutes before we started session to use slides yeah we
Did indeed so you guys don’t know that it’s all smoothness and and we go through the flow like water they say but indeed that was that was perfectly matched and thank you also for shedding light on that especially at the end I think that’s striking right to see how
We’re shifting that that that you know that that Import in a way and that export of water from LS and that the for the first time in human history uh the hydrological cycle is changing is in a way baffling uh to see I wanted to ask you because um you have mentioned right
That the solution or one of the solution uh towards this is that we start to treat the hydrological cycle and water as a global common good now I can imagine that maybe um uh to somebody that uh might not be such an expert as yourself uh that that might also be hard
To Envision could you maybe help and uh make it tangible for us to Envision what sort of a world uh we’ live in what that would look like if we would start to treat uh the hydrological cycle as a global common good what are we talking
About then yeah no no thanks for that question because it could be good just as a little reminder what is a Global Commons well we we actually have four Global Commons that are recognized legally across the world so it’s Antarctica it’s the high seas it’s outter space and the atmosphere these
Are considered systems outside of national jurisdictions that we all as Humanity are responsible for so we have a treaty treat for Antarctica do we have a treaty for the global biological cycle do we have a system to protect it we don’t so what we’re arguing is that we
Have now become such a big world on such a small planet that we now need to raise the bar on governing the global chological cycle just like we govern the high seas for example uh requiring from us to take responsibility collectively now how that would happen institutionally is of course a big
Question mark yeah but it’s it’s a fundamental paradigm yeah thank you so much also for shedding light on that I think that definitely helps and you give me the perfect Bridge Johan because how that would look like institutionally and how that looks like in terms of changing
Economic uh rules and institution is uh all about uh what the next speaker will shed light on so uh may I ask you all once again to give Your Enthusiasm fully to our next speaker Dr Richard dmania who is Chief economics and sustainable development vice president at the World
Bank and adviser to the global Commission on the economics of water Richard the floor is all yours can we get a big round of applause for him as well thank you so much asah is that working okay great okay look Yan’s always a really really hard act to follow um I mean he’s
The best speaker I’ve ever heard and really he’s laid down the framework for what’s wrong with water so well that I don’t have to rehearse it whatsoever so instead what we’ll do is we’ll start by stepping back a little bit and talking and putting water in the context of what
I think everyone would agree with other two defining challenges of the 21st century and we’ll go through them and we’ll put water into them as we go through I think the first biggest defining challenge of the 21st century is as we would all agree I think over here is the Environmental Challenge and
A challenge of sustainability and what it really boils down to fundamentally is can we actually grow an economy can we eradicate poverty by enhancing the environment rather than by depleting it why is it stated in this way to understand why it’s stated in this way let’s go back in time only till just
After the second world war we’ve seen enormous growth since World War II we’ve seen an enormous reduction in poverty in just 1980 40 % of the world were in extreme poverty today despite coid under 10% are in extreme poverty hunger has diminished so on and so forth living
Standards are higher than they always were what fueled that tremendous increase in living standards and the eradication of poverty of course there’s still too many poor people of course it’s still not good enough but what fuel the progress so far and this is a graph taken from the D escope to review of
Biodiversity it summarizes it very very clearly we have seen and we have fueled that growth through tremendous investments in physical capital and produced Capital that’s that purple line that you see trending upwards we’ve built roads faster than we ever have done communication costs have fallen we
Can construct dams and we have more dams today than we ever had dams we’ve got irrigation canals if you don’t have water over there we can deliver it and therefore we can produce more food produce more Goods produce more services likewise human capital has gone up say
1960 one and every two people you would have met would have been functionally illiterate today that number is under 18% and so on for education so on for life expectancy Etc consider instead natural Capital that is nature take any metric of nature that you desire Johan told us about climate change it’s going
In the wrong direction biodiversity going extremely in the wrong direction it’s very very red on Johan’s planetary boundary talk of chemicals talk we lose more people to air to in deaths to air pollution than we do to all wars and all forms of violence all forms of natural
Capital are in Decline so now let’s move to water and let’s talk of one aspect of water you’re all water experts so I had to search around what is it maybe you didn’t know too much about and one aspect of water that perhaps you didn’t quite recognize even if you knew it was
Happening and that is the changes that we are seeing in rainfall and precipitation what that red line is showing you the amount of areas the amount of regions of this world that are experiencing dry episodes that are trending dry that is rainfall is less than the mean less than the average more
Of this Earth is turning dry in red than is turning blue if you were an economist how would you think about this problem why would it be a problem for an economist let’s change it from water let’s go to something else that people love talking about they never talk about water as
Being a scarce resource we all talk about fuel as being a scarce resource let’s think about fuel through time once upon a time take the UK very well documented wood was used as the primary fuel then we deforested almost all of England sorry my colleagues from England
I know there’s at least a couple of you over here we deforested much of England that had forests moved to Coal then for a variety of reasons move from coal to oil to gas and today wind think about water if we run out of water there is no
Substitute for water we can’t go from coal to oil water is water it is unique and if there is no substitute for water we’ll hear a little bit about Cape Town I think it will really hurt the economy and what we actually find is that where you get these dry episodes
Growth plummets and it plummets quite seriously the growth can plummet by up to oneir and that is a very very big economic effect but it’s unrecognized why is it unrecognized unlike a flood or anything else when you get a drought that is misery in slow motion it comes
Upon slowly you don’t know precisely when it’s triggered when there’s a flood you see it and you actually move in so the economic impacts here are massive and of course we’re going to see more of that there is however a silver lining which is tremendous what you actually
Find when you look at the data this is not model this is actual data is places that have a lot of soil moisture you give them a drought give them a dry shock there can often be no there’ll often be no impact act whatsoever the impact is neutralized what neutralizes
The impact soil moisture how do you get soil moisture one of two ways you get a lot of rainfall say three years or four years the anti-ant conditions and the other one is you have Upstream forests and what we find and what we find very powerfully one minute only
Okay when you have Upstream forests it serves as a buffer and it cuts the GDP impact and yet even though Upstream forests cut the GDP impact you learned were really really important for the CO2 cycle that’s the deforestation that we’re actually doing we’re destroying our forests at race that we never did
The second Big Challenge I’ve only got a minute so we’re going to just run through it very very quickly is a challenge of inclusion all of us here as wash people and as water people have talked about you must give water to poor people indeed that’s right and indeed we
Do very well but there’s one aspect of it that we’ve often forgotten there’s very very many forms of exclusion we often exclude people for reasons of race for reasons of ethnicity etc etc so what is what is our record on this and this is the first time anyone has seen this
So the blue is rich people the red is poor people what you find on this graph what it’s really telling you to summarize it very very quickly is the more people that you have where you live that are vulnerable that are minorities the less likely you are to provide
Public goods such as sanitation and this is from 30 countries that’s actually done so it’s not just poverty so you can be equally poor equally Rich come from a minority in many a country you don’t get the sanitation and I can show you the same for water supply let’s move on so
What are we doing in the commission last slide right last slide okay so what are we doing in the commission we are tackling these problems headon and I think in a very very novel way too the first key question that we’re asking and you saw Yan answering this question to a
Very great extent is what is happening to the supply of water and we really need to know this at a granular level where are the hot spots where are the places that are drying where are the places that are getting wetter the second question you need to know what is
Driving those changes is the change being driven by me misusing my own water diverting it so someone Downstream doesn’t get the water or someone else miles away destroying their Forest as we actually saw and that destroys my rainfall or Alters my rainfall so what are the drivers what are the impacts if
There’s no economic impact I’m afraid it’s not my view but a lot of people won’t be that interested so if you can’t show the impacts on society the economy and the environment of course you know people will say it’s not Material it’s not that important and then what are the
Solutions that you actually so I think those would probably be the foundational critical questions that the commission will try to answer with that let me end thank you thank you so much thank you yeah can we have a big round of applause thank you uh oh no please Richard if you
Can stay I I would also like to ask you a second question you’ve shared so much I was trying to run away you were like that was longer than an extra minute that I took there right I’m just kidding no no thank you so much both of you were
Very sing no no no you were actually uh but I wanted to actually ask you something because uh first of all thank you so much for everything you shared uh I think it’s always so insightful to you know get that in a in a seven minute crash course almost from all the
Experience you have um but one thing at the very end you mentioned right that uh what is the impact because it’s not your opinion but some people say that well if it doesn’t have any economic impact then it’s not Material it doesn’t matter at the same time you showed so clearly in
The presentation that you know uh growth plummets when there is drought so uh it left me a bit worried and wondering what is it then in our current economic system because it is affected by what is happening all the all the effects that you’ve you’ve shown with the
Hydrological cycle changing what is it then uh in our economic system that fills us uh in addressing these issues so the specific issue of drought that I actually showed you is people don’t recognize when a drought is happening till you reach the Cape Town stage or till things get really really bad and
Many of the impacts of drought as Johan showed you are hidden impacts things like the forest fire if not drought it’s du to soil moisture actually not actually being there and temperatures being too high so it’s not visible but then the more deeper problems of you
Know what it is in terms of the economy and the economic policy that’s a bigger question yeah that we might get into in a little bit can I again have a big round of applause for uh Dr Richard deania thank you so much you’ll be back
With us in a little bit now my dear friends I see you with your concentrated uh slightly worried faces if you are uh I join you because these are some striking um this is striking information and it’s quite big and it’s also uh in a way uh you know warning of what’s more
To come if we don’t act in time but I want to take this opportunity to also get something back from you because you’ve been taking in a lot of information so I would really like to uh you know hear from you how you reflect on everything that has been shared so
Far I did a little secret nudge to turn our man of the hour uh because we have a slido prepared for you so this is the one time that I will say grab your phone during the session uh I feel a little bit like a primary school teacher by the
Way because I started off with saying that we have a pop quiz and I’m like you can take your phones out now students so please scan the QR code because I am very curious to hear from you and also from our audience online that will be
Joining in uh first of all do you support the suggestions that the suggestion that water uh should be considered as a global common good is that a yes A no requires additional evidence if you vote that then you’ve not been watching the presentation I’m afraid or no opinion um please fill it
Out in the meantime while you do uh let’s do a little check in the room uh because I’m actually curious to see will everybody that answers yes stand and if you think and if you don’t agree with this statement then you remain seated so please stand if you think that we should
Uh that you support the suggestion that water should be considered as a global common good if you think no remain seated because that would be uh uh also super valuable uh to hear from then and now I got you now I got you people uh because I’m curious to hear from you uh
T is here with the microphone I am very curious to hear from the sir there all the way on the left uh why he agrees with this yeah yeah you well um I see uh in Mexico uh where I come from that the not not treating
Water as a common good all the uh rigidities that we have in administering the resource of water yeah has us in a very inefficient uh low-level equilibrium and uh I believe that uh in the necessary reforms that we have to do to our water sector yeah uh we will have
To treat water as a common good yeah uh as a an element to be treated as a public interest yeah and then to to to uh promote the efficiency that is needed right alongside that we can have the equity result that we’re all looking for
Okay thank you so much thank you so much for sharing that um who remained seated I saw some people sitting but it were uh very few uh somebody here in the middle but maybe he was just on his phone during the session I’m sorry I don’t
Want to call you out were you uh do you think water should be a global uh uh common good or yeah we do uh need a microphone there um and I’m actually even referring to the sir uh seated above you thank you thank you for your help too
There yes hello uh Yes actually I was a little bit in a cognitive dissonance there um uh I think uh yeah you it’s a matter of interpretation but uh for my experience mostly uh water issues are uh have to be um studied and managed on a
Local level so I I don’t really see the the the added value to now bring it on a global level okay that’s quite clear is there somebody that wants to respond to that um in the room or maybe um maybe we can actually go to the next
Uh question because it also uh adds to this uh but thank you for sharing your perspective it’s uh it it it reminds me a little bit of what we started off with when Hank said it’s local but it’s also Global and I think uh also in the
Presentation what was shown is how it’s so transboundary and how these shifting Cycles make sure that countries are so dependent on each other and are so Interlink that that uh element is uh you know uh becoming even more prominent but thank you so much it’s definitely in a
Way also local um going to the next uh slide T I just think if I press the arrow that it will go right oh no it doesn’t go so maybe I’m going to need you after all um because the next question is what you would like
To see uh or what you see as a key feature of an Innovative and effective approach to the economics of water um yeah I would say pick the one that you think is the most important is it the efficiency use is it the having Equity as a condition for water management
Pricing so we should stop underpricing reform of Agriculture subsidies was mentioned a couple of times now right uh that we need to repurpose those subsidies um you can also say something entire L different I think that would be really interesting as well for uh yeah the commission to take into account if
There are some new ideas uh here that we can take along so if you place them in the Q&A function uh then we will make sure to send those uh forth afterwards oh I see we we have a favorite uh it’s uh it’s popping up at the very top it’s
Pricing as a reflection of water values um that is actually really interesting might be interesting in a bit to uh to ask about that so it’s about um yeah pricing the externalities if you will because water of course is uh used in so many production processes agriculture as
We’ve heard 70% so um quite clear uh T maybe we could go to the final uh slido question uh because we would also very much like to hear from you guys what do you see as a major impediment to change how water is being valued and managed at
Local National or Global levels uh Richard mentioned of course that and that was very interesting to me that drought is misery in slow mo motion as you said it um which I think is very interesting that because it’s not happening as shockingly at once that we gradually Let It Go by um vested
Interest that is very interesting lack of knowledge legal and contractual Arrangements lack of capacity to take action or else please specify in the Q&A function um that is also very interesting to see that some people have some other uh points please do send it in a Q&A function maybe um later on T
Can fish those out for us and uh we can take them in to the panel uh please keep on voting also to the people uh at home thank you so much for doing that uh now I think those are some interesting insights from you guys to take into the
Next panel also you have been listening for a little bit so if you have any questions in a bit please do just raise your hand and we’ll bring a microphone to you uh but with that being said uh I would first actually like to ask Richard
And Johan to please join me again on on the stage um because I’m actually really curious to hear from you as well we have these microphones here on the side uh if you huddle around them they’re quite sound sensitive so they should be able to pick up everything that is also
Warning in itself I’m just kidding um the very last question we have 59% even 60% now as I’m speaking uh of people saying that vested interest is uh one of the major impediments uh to how water is being valued Richard I mentioned already you you also spoke of the slow nature of
Droughts specifically for example and how that uh is also an impediment in itself uh to how fast we act and how much of a crisis perspective we have um but I am really curious to hear from you towards action what would you say is required uh and what what major
Impediment should we overcome to uh make these preliminary findings and recommendations actionable Johan would you uh otherwise you’re going to have to do rock paper scissors guys okay want me okay so I I would agree with the bulk of the audience that vested interests are really really important um and they are
An impediment especially when you’re talking about very big change so if I’m a very large uh producer say and forever and a day I’ve been receiving free or highly subsidized water then of course it affects me and I will Lobby very hard to ensure that my water stays free but
It’s up and down the channel and I’ll just point out to everyone that a lot of the subsidies to water are indirect Subs idies so for example many countries that are very very dry subsidized products like sugar cane which are extremely water thirsty and you have this huge
Channel value value chain of and huge numbers of people that are reliant on these subsidies to things like sugar cane cotton and rice that are grown in precisely the wrong place and of course there’s no charge for the water so you have this vicious interconnected cycle that makes the reform really really
Difficult and in those circumstances I suspect if you were simply to change the price of water it won’t give you the impact till you actually tackle the subsidies to sugar cane rice water whatever else you’re doing I don’t know if I answered that adequately no no
Thank you so much and and and do I understand it correctly how how would you think then that we get out of that because that’s sort of a uh lock in that we need to get out of then right and so we should never worry about water in a
Silo of water because water connects to everything else yeah whether it’s the user or the suppliers and I think we have to get out of our Silo thinking about water is being oh simply providing some water infrastructure and the problem is solved no yeah sometimes you
Make the problem a lot worse let me just say this um it’s statistically true that if you’re in a very dry place and if I build you extremely large water storage in a place that was very dry the first thing that you will do when that water
Is free is switch from whatever you are growing to Rice cotton or sugar cane the three most water thirsty crops with or without subsidies you see that all through South Asia you see that increasingly in Africa you’ll see that in Australia you’ll see that in America you’ll see that wherever you actually go
Yeah then the drought comes and the drought always comes and there isn’t enough water behind your Dam so your net primary productivity collapses that is your yields collapse your income collapses and with this growing frequency of dry shocks that we’re actually seeing we can show that you’re
Worse off growing that Rice relative to what you would have earned if you had not grown that rice or that water thirsty CR and had grown something else W that that is quite shocking that in the the loss is bigger than the gain that could be that could be yeah from
That uh Johan if you listen to this and and to the question what would you say is needed no I I I would just want to kind of broaden the question and and in a way complicate it slightly because we see vested interests in the Blue Water
Domain but not in the green water domain green water is not considered a resource to fight over in that sense and that I think is one of the great challenges we have because green water is what secures next year’s precipitation levels so if you want to have blue water in your dam
In the future you want to secure the greenw functioning the previous year but that is a a different kind of vested interest and I think the water Community must must step out of the of the of the Water Resource only focus and look at the vested interest in in the oil
Industry in the gas industry in the forest industry in in the whole you know Land Management uh Community because that that’s where your your asset of green and blue water is ultimately determined so it’s a it’s a kind of a broad and vested interest uh challenge that we’re
Facing definitely and I I do hear the both of you saying that that stepping out of it also requires bringing in a new way of thinking uh we have some people answering by the way uh that said that it’s none of the options that we’ve provided it’s somebody says our lack of our
Imagination to think of a new paradigm short-term political Cycles money profits geopolitical issues so uh a c couple of more that people are adding uh but I actually want to take what you said and it was also in your presentation Richard the the the inclusion uh issue that we have and I
Think that’s also in essence about bringing in New Perspectives that we’re sometimes missing uh and with regards to that I would like to call forward our uh other three panelists to join us here because they really uh you know have these these different perspectives and they’ve been reading the report and I’ve
Been talking to them in the past days uh so I’m very excited to have them here and have them bring in their perspectives uh so if I can all get you uh uh to please give a very warm welcome to first of all uh Mrs Christine pu who
Is a PhD researcher at Stanford University on water climate and economic development bringing in a youth perspective give her a big round of applause then we have Mr s giria who is a local msai community indigenous leader and the leader for the panafrican a living cultures Alliance big round of
Applause for some as well and um last but definitely not not least the city was mentioned earlier uh uh the City of Cape Town counselor none other than Dr zahid Badr and also for him a big round of applause now um you guys you have been listening in um and I just really
Curious because at the very start we said that we also want to get in perspectives that might be missing and and and we’ve stated right that the commission still has a year to go um these are the preliminary findings you’ve all read the report I’ve talked
To all of you uh so I’m really curious to hear from you what uh what are how do you relate to some of these early messages of the global commission and uh yeah what are some things that you would really like to to see add it or or some
Insights you’d like to share about that uh Sam well I’m looking locking eyes with you would you like to uh to start yes uh thank you so much for this opportunity and um I’m Samuel nangia from Tanzania Nas community and the first question when I was invited here was whether am I
Global is my community Global this is the question I was asking myself because in so many of instances our voices our wisdom our view has always been sidelined in so many of development economic and other Global processes so indigenous Community we have been finding ourselves in an isolation struggling to maintain to
Conserve to protect but it seems like the whole world has been fighting us so um what I find here is this is a noble opportunity to be able to present my views my Community views indigenous Community wisdom into this uh very important very important resource uh how I relate uh with the earlier
Messages is it is as good to think about water is a a common resource but it is also good to think about how diverse are the ways different people different communities relate to water because for us as indigenous Community um water is so Central that it is not only
About economy it’s not about livelihood it’s not about um but it’s also more cultural more spiritual and our relationship is humanized with water it’s more personal and this is why we’ve always been protecting you see in videos indigenous Community all over the world are being evicted forcefully because
They tend to protect their own rights right nature rights water rights because in so many of the places we’ve been evicted to after a while yeah they change they become something else so I think for me it’s important to think about as much as we think about global
But we also think about uh the diverse interest diverse values and different ways of uh um relationship communities have with what thank you but thank you so much for sharing that because what I also hear and I think that’s interesting when we talk earlier we had the the M
Meter who voted for the uh pricing as the uh most most prominent thing that we should do can I see Hands in a room uh some hands okay it was the the most voted for and the favorite of people but uh and it’s not to say I I I personally
Also think that that would be uh a good thing but I also hear you say something else that is when we when we give water a value how do we account for the spiritual value that it has and the the cultural value and and and and and and
You know what it means to generations of people living on the land uh that is an interesting one maybe we can tap into that in a little bit because uh I also want to go to you Christine um from your own background you you are you know uh
Specialized in water in uh water development Economic Development how how do you look at uh at at at everything that we’ve been discussing for so far what are some major bottlenecks that you’ve identified um sorry I’m a little bit short for this please yeah take share
This um I he hear the need for different types of governance systems I hear the need for Collective action and you know um putting our interests aside to to uh think about others but I also see the realities of different incentives for action or the lack thereof and something
I think about when I think about water is this idea of it not respecting National boundaries right water will flow where it will flow they’ll have atmospheric rivers and evaporation and the whole hydrological cycle doesn’t conform to our elect tal boundaries um and we recently had an experience with
Dealing with such a problem and it was called coid and in reflecting on kind of vaccine distribution or the lack thereof I think there’s a real opportunity to think about what didn’t work in that scenario um what happened when no one knew what to do but we’re thinking about
You know folks was residing with in their own boundaries and What mechanisms do we need to improve upon to actually present in incentives um to think about Collective responsibility so I’m hoping that I’m sure there are lots of folks thinking about this as a reflection point but that does seem like an
Opportunity um it was a dress rehearsal and I I don’t know that we did that well um but that’s my personal opinion yeah thank you so much for sh shedding light on that I also once heard somebody said that the the the pace at which we distributed and mobilized ourselves that
That showed that there was an inherently more crisis sort of perspective and and in an Insight that people had rather than uh a transitional one they always say that if you look at something as a transition it takes two to three generations to change it but if you look
At it as the crisis that it is then it’s way faster that you can actually do that thank you so much um zahed um uh it’s been mentioned before K and when I spoke to you I I I found it very interesting because you were uh you were you know
Illustrating to me so well how the specific the specificity of a local context should not be lost when we talk talk about uh Global Solutions as such and I remember how you talked about informal settlements lacking infrastructure in places and how do we uh you know deal with such a context
When we talk about um you know the economics of water how how do you relate to the to the early findings so perhaps if I can uh start with some takeaways of the inputs that have been made we’ve we’ve heard phrases like water challenges uh which I think very simply
Deal with either too much water too little water and speaking to uh my friend over there polluted water as well which is uh I think a real consideration in your country and also in my city specifically um and definitely agree with the fact that we must look at water
As a collective good uh and specifically on a on a local level uh on a on a municipal level where we may not deal with uh trans boundaries across countries but we certainly deal with trans boundaries across municipalities where uh catchment areas may be without or rather outside of uh particular City
Uh but together we have to manage these resources so that at least uh the dams which ultimately are shared resource then can benefit uh all who who need to uh tap into to that particular um uh asset in terms of dams uh but considering the question that you’ve
That you’ve asked there there must be a fundament fundamental mindset shift uh for the specific reason that coid 19 uh has showed us that on a very local level again uh in my own City where there’s been an explosion uh of informality where people are now erecting structures
Uh in Retention Ponds detention ponds in Wetlands on the side of Roads moving out from backyards how do we provide water services in a Safeway to these areas but then again on a very local level looking at the uh Collective Agreement taken from uh the study how do we look at
Pricing uh in terms of providing those services to a community that may not potentially be able to pay for it right so those are some of the conversations we and and and you you mentioned a mindset shift um can you maybe elaborate what should I think of when you say that
Yeah so in in again my city and in our country we we’re very good at you know making sure that where there is a service requirement in terms of the constitutional right of every South African to water to sanitation services uh there is a National Standard where we
Must provide uh one tap or one um one Sanitation access point to every five families one tap to every 25 families within 100 m but the mindset then is noting this explosion in this informality how do we reduce uh those standards to get or or how do we improve
Those standards to get more people to access those basic Services as close to their home as possible right thank you so much for sharing that um yeah maybe Richard uh Johan some things have been shared so far for example how do we value almost the intangible right uh
Cultural value when we look at pricing for example uh these local realities of infrastructure that is lacking and and um uh you know informal in settlements in that way but also uh sort of the the urgency approach with which we act would would perhaps both of you like to uh
Reflect on those uh insights being shared yeah just just a few Reflections I mean to to begin with just to ensure that there’s not a misunderstanding so I’m not and we’re certainly not in in the global uh Commission on the economics of water suggesting that we
Should kind of lift up the whole water economics and governance only to the global level what we are showing through the scientific evidence is the interconnectivity of scales that for the first time even though water really matters locally it is for local communities it’s indigenous it’s local economies it’s it’s local Health but
It’s today interconnected all the way to the global level and that is so dramatic that actually what what happens with air pollution or with ice melt or with forest fires can actually impact on Monsoon rain stability thousands of kilometers away impacting on local communities right and and I would argue
That’s a human right to be aware of that yeah so that links connects me to co I mean I I agree Co is such a pertinent example of lesson learned and and my lesson learned to this which goes primarily on climate but actually goes on the Water Crisis as well how did we
Take off on what what made us step out of our comfort zone and act as a global community on a global crisis well I can tell you it was fear fear and it was fear every day and we were pumped with the evidence of the risk to the extent
That we Rose as a collective how often do we hear the same crisis on freshwater never we never talk of the fires the droughts I mean we talk of the floods of course because they are explicitly water but we see them more or less like an act
Of God this is this is a real problem we have that we are for some reason uh letting all our discussions on everything that matters for our economies to just be completely let’s say free from all form of wetness or or or hydrology behind it and I think we
Have to be much more clear in our Communications of what what are we causing in terms of impact I’m I’m also thinking because I I fully agree I think that I think that uh we’re not fully even grasping like maybe 2% okay I’m just naming number now I shouldn’t do
That in in the presence of scientists but um go ahead XY Z percent uh that we don’t fully realize of what’s going on but uh I’m also thinking in a way about climate and I feel like with climate uh it’s it’s much more prominently communicated so I feel like that fear is
Definitely present but we’re still behind I mean you showed it with the planetary boundaries that we’re crossing so I mean uh I want to believe that it’s fear but but I also feel like in in other sectors there’s also so much communication of the urgency we’re still
Not there yeah but it’s I can tell you even on climate it’s it’s a it’s a ridiculous fraction compared to what happened in coid I mean just to give you one small example in this country where we are right now yeah every day for 2 years at400 hours there was a press
Conference hosted by the government yeah with ministers standing on stage every day at 2:00 was that a a sexy interesting press conference oh no it was the same message every day put on masks stay at home this is dangerous take care it’s your life that is at at
Stake every day in two years I see you nodding I think she agrees that does not happen but that you’re right that’s that’s not that’s not comparable indeed but Christine you agree I see you nodding well I mean that was a a very powerful delivery probably more interesting to
Watch than that but yeah I I do think there is something interesting about the crisis component but I’m also impressed in some ways just giving credit where credit is due the extent to which resources were willing and suddenly came out of nowhere to say we got to we got
To develop a vaccine and boy did they do that quickly and and boy were there enough competitors out there willing to do that and the scientific knowledge to do that so I know there are a lot of people working in the shadows for which I think when the moment arises they’ll
Come out but this question is how do we bring that out sooner before it gets to the point where we need to lose thousands of people every day thank you yeah sahed what would you say would be a game changer so I if I can use the
Drought as an example the drought yeah so if there was a slow buildup and then all of a sudden the city realized that the drought’s happening and we need to do something about it uh and so it CAU us of god let’s say it was a shock for
Us but we know at this moment that we’re needing to prepare for drer uh weather going forward and so what we have at this moment is what we call the new water program where the city is going to be investing in infrastructure where we’re producing 300 million lers of new
Water from new water sources a day so we’re saying we need to reduce our Reliance on surface water we’re already doing significant work in that space with the nature conservancy as an example where we are uh removing alien invasive plant so that the surface can make its way to the dams but then
Obviously reuse uh is another conversation that we’re starting uh in our city at this moment because it’s not something that we do but a critical component of our water future and water proofing our city so those are some of the game changers youology that we bring
But also the cost and again uh the pricing that goes into that and and who pays and so on definitely in the meantime by the way if there’s any question from the audience uh I’m just checking oh there’s one here and there’s one here uh uh I would actually like to
Take those as well uh can we get the microphone here um uh to you maybe if the people in the row can help pass it on uh yeah it’s there at the top so you should go to your upstairs neighbor behind you perhaps thank you so much go ahead thank
You so much um I have both a both a note and a question um I am a junior repor at this week okay and I really have been missing this climate perspective so thank you for being here and talking today um as a sustainability science student I really see the need to
Integrate climate more in water discussions than what we do now um and to my question um I think that you youan more than anyone understand this need to uh translate science into an accessible language that people understand like you have done many times in your career mhm
Um but water often remains hidden on the climate agenda and as an example in my sustainability science uh class yeah out of 50 people in from all over the world only me kind of see water as an important issue right um which I think is really weird um and so your question
Is how do we put no so my question is how can we like translate these findings that you’re now working with in the Mission into a language that is accessible and make our policy makers finally understand that’s a really good one um you posed it to Johan but maybe I
Would also like to uh POS it as well to uh Sam uh and um yeah if you want to add as well Christin but uh I want to go to you because when we were talking earlier you were also talking about uh how we uh bring a message to people with all these
Different values around the world and how uh in the work that you do you also try to bring the the the importance and and the value of water across to people so uh perhaps you can uh shed some light on that first and then perhaps either
Richard or or Johan could add to that yes um I think um one of the one of the ways that commission might help is through communication is um is very very important during Co forance in in my community community come from um I think we were the last persons to
Get the message in in relevant language because what do you mean when you say relevant language I mean the the language that people understand in Tanzania for instance tribal languages are not allowed in public in any radio or television it is only the the or the national language that is allowed is not
Allowed to to make any statement um in in in indigenous language and that actually impacted people so much until the government now say okay we can allow up to two three minutes of talking about in my language or any other language that people understand to get to know
What is happening so I think the element of communication and translation and also getting to understand what are these values yeah because I think if you cannot if you don’t know then it will be difficult to understand how the messages will be uh developed at the end yeah
Yeah thank you so much and that is baffling in a way that um such a big yeah threshold exists for people to even get the message um yeah Richard I don’t if you would like to add perhaps as well to the question um uh about how we can
Get these findings in a understandable way to people so I I think I think there’s two elements to it one is just the pure communication U the other is also the science um and there isn’t even even in the scientific Community if you talk about climate change there’s very
Very as Johan said there’s very limited recognition of the hydrological cycle as as I think it was Johan was your phrase was that is the bloodstream of the climate cycle right without the hydr hydral cycle goes wrong the climate cycle goes wrong and you could say the same thing in from an economic
Perspective we need water for survival we need water for everything that we produce there’s water embedded in everything one way or another but is it recognized no it’s not why is it not recognized it’s taken for granted and I think that’s part of the problem it’s
Also and I have to say this uh very difficult to understand at least from both the economics and the science angle how important water is what are the imbued what are the embedded contributions that actually exist so you will find innumerable examples of oh when temperatures go up by X GDP will
Fall by why you will see only about five or six what I would regard as being credible good papers that will tell you when water comes down by X GDP will go down by y because it’s so difficult to do right let me just stop yeah and thank you so much because
I yesterday I was at a session there was also somebody that said we need a mental shift and and you were talking about the Mind shift mindset shift earlier as well uh in that we’re taking water for granted yesterday specifically we were talking about how in the food system we
See water solely as an input instead of a for example an existential threat to the entirety of it or uh you know in different ways but that is also striking to hear that you would only have like a couple of good papers that I think underlines how we are taking um that
Impact for granted thank you so much can I can I jump in and just I’m a data science which means I love numbers and pretty graphs yeah but I actually find that some of the most powerful things to communicate are stories oo and as much as we need
Scientists and economists we also need a lot of lived experiences and in my research when I work with local communities it’s not hard to see the impact of climate as soon as you have a conversation with them about livelihoods and um just what farming has been like over the last couple of years
So to the extent that we can have a collective and diversified source of information and knowledge I think there’s really a lot of power to that yeah to telling sories I see nodding all around so I I guess it’s it’s probably yeah for sure underlines thanks for
Sharing that I think that that is also a big thing right if you want to get these findings out to the masses and we’ve want got people uh behind it then there’s also an element of how do we tell the story uh so thank you for that addition there’s one question here from
The audience as well could you say your name and your question hello H my name is Juan Pao Romo I’m a consultant and if you understand maybe that decisions on the national level are made based on national account systems do you see maybe the work that you’re doing spreading into national account systems
So the stud is not maybe understood as a global initiative but as a Collective action Gathering effort made worldwide uh how do you mean that it’s uh could you explain what do you mean with uh National well basically the national accounts systems for example that the ones that make GDP yeah could be
Gathering information tools for this sort of initiatives process alog together right yeah corroborate what you’re saying yeah doing that improving the decision making process and the political process yeah that’s a good one uh that relation with national and maybe if you could pass the microphone down then we can do two
Questions at one uh because there’s one here at the very front as well uh my name is m um for me Richard and Yan are not only some of the smartest people in the business they’re also some of the most the best communicators so you
Inspire me this is a treat before we go home from uh stockh Mort week and I think yes we need to communicate to the Masters but we also need to communic communicate to decision makers and read it listen at it again repeat it um
Drought is uh is a is a a crisis in slow motion one of the things I keep saying since Richard Tau it 10 years ago to me I think we let’s be careful not to oversimplify we need these stories we have good story tellers here and let’s
Make sure that we connect the dots make it a little bit simpler but also stay with the content of it because this is aspiring communication and it needs to reach maybe not only the great Ma masses but the people who dare to take decisions and we need to get out of the
Water bubble yeah thank you so much for sharing that as well uh and uh definitely I think I will also be stealing that by the way so uh you did it 10 years ago mic I’ll do it today please yeah would you like to respond I like the point that’s being
Made um and it was in another session U ched by or um hosted by the World Bank yesterday where uh the point being that there are different groups of people that need to be spoken to and not everybody needs the same type of message you’ve got your experts the
Professionals the engineers and then you’ve got your uh your your decision makers the government and so on but the reality here is that those in government aren’t necessarily reading those technical reports which are being put together and read and analyzed by the experts so the point being is that in a
In a government space the those in the decision- making around need to be surrounded by those people who understand the importance of the lessons being learned on a global national local level and then interpreting that for that specific context and then then tailoring that communication to who you
Are speaking to but at the same time not forgetting the ordinary let’s say resident on the ground where these decisions are then having an impact on so tailor the message towards who you are speaking to and remember not everyone’s interested in the technical component but the technical component
Matters uh in the decision- making process thank you thank you definitely for shedding light on that Johan you’d like to come in yeah I just wanted to to follow up on on the on the accounting question which I think is a really important one and and I hope that we can
Make some progress on that in the commission yeah I mean one thing that tends to happen is that we in the in the water Community tend to look a bit jealously on the climate community that theyve come much much further ahead on quantifying carbon and carbon in I I
Think tactics should be you know just like at at to Def France you know when you have headwinds you put yourself just behind the yellow ver Jersey and just hang along it’s much easier and I think I think we should do that ride as well and and integrate water in the national
Accounts and and that can be done I mean we have the methodologies to quantify just as Richard said I mean how much water do you have behind the capitals that build up your National Assets and I would suggest that you you could go even beyond that because when you think of it
At best we look at average precipitation levels plus minus one standard deviation and then we have some hydrographs with the runoff flows which kind of are measured based on 50-year trajectories and that’s what we work with you could in the national accounts look at what is my import yeah sourcing of fresh water
Atmospheric rivers in and how much am I exporting and also look at how is this changing because of anthropogenic change right thank you look at look at what’s happening right now we’re way outside the national these things can be Quantified and I think that is part of of the
Storytelling as well I mean you see you love numbers which which I think the beauty is combining numbers with stories yeah and I I mean you just did that perfectly I Lov I’m never going to get now the the image of those tour the France people like sticking on and using
That acceleration to to drive us forth hey um I actually want to thank you all so much because uh as they say time flies when you’re learning a lot of new things having good discussions um can I ask everybody for one big round Round of Applause to our panel for sharing all their
Insights thank you so much thank you so much now please um uh and uh as I said you’ve you’ve given us so much and uh uh I think I totally underlined what M mic says it’s really a treat uh at the end uh of the conference to get all these
Insights but also these presentations also these stories in the way that they’re being told um so definitely a lot to go off with now um luckily there is somebody in the audience that we saw at the very beginning that has been listening very closely to everything
That is being said uh and can share some final closing remarks with us I will call him forth in a minute before I do I want to tell you a little bit about the QR code that you see behind me now uh we have bombarded you with insights
Information calls to action things you can do uh and as we said at the beginning the global commission still has a year to go uh and uh there are going to be more interactive dialogues with them to really gather input but if you take this QR code uh then you can go
To the community platform where you can still share ideas insights things you think they should take along in the the next year of work that they’ll do so please save it uh I want to thank you before I leave so you’ve been an amazing audience thank you for the questions
You’ve asked and filling everything out uh and now I would like to ask you all for one big Final Round of Applause for Hank oink gang thank you haar and actually a round of applause for haar she’s the most amazing moderator of this world water week AER has been partnering with us on
Water for many years and um look forward to uh uh many more encounters also in the context of the global commission I’m I’m going to be partially boring uh because I also want to message some of the notes moving forward uh that were given and want to make sure I do this right
Uh and not improvise too much which is one of my core competences sorry for that um so one thing haar already said the QR code leads you to a web page where you can uh interact it’s it’s starting so don’t expect already like this you know this whole community of
The world engaging You full mid you might be the first so we’re setting so but we need you so the it’s the beginning we choose World water week as a way to start this we wanted to start this earlier but it takes time and World water week for that is an amazing
Platform so and we need your voices there and we will do our utmost best the OCD is the Secretariat for the commission we we have a com team of course the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from uh the Dutch government is there uh to make sure that this becomes a
Community in the context of the global commission uh second uh you will find the commission and the Commissioners as well as the network uh in many events moving forward and that’s exactly what we’re trying to do it’s figuring out how we engage in a food system Summit in sdd
Summit coming up but also in a Regional Conference or an event somewhere in the region in a community uh connected to the World Bank fall and spring meetings uh of course the cop uh in the UAE and uh uh World water Forum in Bali next year and
So forth and so forth so the next layer of interaction will be on stage and in these debates and these often online conversations to make sure that we connect the work of the commission moving forward with the work of others and then in in your on Words um we be
Behind the yellow green and the pka do jerseys of the world to make sure that we are uh not only catching up uh but perhaps sometimes even overh holding them it’s possible in the tour front shows that and and last but not least the global commission also will focus on
A couple of societal dialogues knowing that the Dynamics is already big we don’t want to dis you know disturb you more although we want to disturb you a lot as Yan and Richard made very clear and the panel also made very clear if we don’t do this now forget about tomorrow
Uh it’s not only about taking care of water now for your next uh Harvest it’s about taking care of water now for your health of you and your children uh of your communities of your infrastructure energy etc etc etc and to add to that point interesting uh parallel between the
Pandemic and water I want to scale that down a bit uh when the invasion of Russia and Ukraine uh started uh Europe was on its toes not only because of the invasion but because of the dependency on Russian gas and we immediately responded on the European scale as well as on the
National scale we kept the price making sure that everybody was safe that there was energy we worked together uhuh and public and private within the European Union and we more or less dealt with it I’m not saying that contributed to mitigating climate change but it dealt with the risk of energy insecurity that
Was exactly the same summer that we had uh the third or fourth massive drought in Europe and the only thing we did on the European level was said please don’t fill your swimming pool so compared to that energy crisis the response from a government perspective was like nothing the
Response from a private sector perspect perspective was also nothing so you know it doesn’t have to be a press conference every day although it’s possible but the comparison between the impact of this water crisis on everything we want to achieve and value is massive so it’s in the communications it’s in the politics
I it’s the way we collaborate and communicate and it’s in everything moving forward that’s it thank you very much we want to hear from you the commission wants to hear from you uh next year the commission will also end with a report and Report up and around the summit of the
Future in September we will see that will hopefully be in in the middle of this Dynamics this stir that we want to create we work now very hard to make sure it’s not only a report that it is already connected to action commitments by governments by private sector Finance
By food energy uh and across that it fits within climate and for that we partner with the UAE towards the cop so there’s a lot in the making to make sure that we anchor the work of the commission and the many streams moving forward to make sure that
Beyond that report and Beyond those coalitions something there’s real impact coming out of that and that can never be done by the commission or the Dutch government or the oecd not even in their partnership that has to happen because in the context of water being Global common goods it Demands a global
Coalition at all scales can be very small at the local scale but in the context of this massive burst of action so the commission is also a ask a call to action but in that sense of provocation to each and every one of you in the context of where you work and
With who you work that if we don’t take concerted action together and scale that in the context of this crisis we lose we fail so on the upside it’s possible because we done it and we do it every day and water and that’s my last is the most
Amazing thing there is because it’s connected to everything we care for it’s connected to everyone everywhere around the world so the only thing you have to do is bring water into your conversation and it brings everybody to your table thank you