Messages for the UN Climate Change conference COP 15

Download the brochure with messages for COP 15 here...

IWA Water and Energy Declaration

A draft IWA Water and Energy Declaration was prepared before the conference by the Conference Programme Committee and distributed to the delegates for discussion during sessions at the conference. A Summary Team has finalised the declaration text after the conference. Download the final version of the declaration here...

Draft before IWA Water and Energy 2009 conference:

Water and energy are inextricably linked. Energy is needed for water supply and wastewater treatment and water is a critical component in the production of power. Energy is also used when water is used, and vice versa. The design of our cities, suburbs, homes and appliances has enormous implication for water and energy consumption. Population growth, climate change, urbanization and rising health and environmental standards increasingly call for an integrated approach in our increasingly water and fossil fuel constrained world and economies. Development of new policies and technologies and which reduce the use of water and energy may also stimulate business economies.

§1: Integration of Water and Energy policies
Water policy influences energy choices and vice versa creating a need for integration of policies. Having the right pricing, policy and regulatory frameworks are critical to encourage behavioural changes, to motivate innovation, to ensure sustainable use of water and energy resources and to simultaneously adapt to and mitigate climate change. Within such frameworks different solutions may be applied for local circumstances.

§2 Water quantity and quality aspects on the Energy agenda

Availability of water is a key issue for many power plants and production of primary energy carriers like oil and coal. If availability is seasonally reduced, such facilities may not have enough water available for cooling or may result in conflict with legislation to protect aquatic ecology. Addition of chemicals as inhibitors, anti-scaling agents and biocides contributes with environmental loads of hazardous substances, some with bioaccumulating characteristics. The construction and operation of dams and hydropower plants can contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, smooth operating peaks and store energy and water as well as provide improved ship traffic safety. However they also may have big impacts on river ecology.

§3: Optimizing daily energy use and production patterns in the two sectors

Energy use at water and wastewater utilities often follows a daily, weekly and sometimes seasonal pattern. Power plant operations are dynamic in order to match supply and demand on the grid. There is a potential to compensate some of the daily use patterns by pumping water to storage reservoirs, conducting certain water treatment processes etc., during low load hours for the grid. In particular, combinations of desalination plants and power production from wind, wave or solar energy may provide sustainable solutions.

§4: Efficient operation of water systems

Energy savings in households and in industry will have a direct impact on the need for electrical energy and consequently also indirectly on water use. Savings in hot water use may save fossil fuel. Technology development, such as instrumentation control and automation combined with more efficient pumps, refrigerators, air conditioners, heating systems and power electronic motor control will offer a most significant impact on the total electrical energy use.

§5: Energy recovery in the water sector

Energy recovery from wastewater treatment is common and biogas may be used for power generation, fuel for transport or heating. Heat transfer from groundwater and wastewater resources, respectievely for both heating and cooling systems provide generic solutions when costs of fossil fuel based energy are increasing. New niche technologies may also offer interesting new solutions such Microbial Fuels Cells (MFC) for green production of chemicals based on electricity produced directly during biodegradation of waste organic matter.

§6: LCA, LCIA and carbon and water footprinting

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which has further developed into Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) provide systematic concepts and methodologies to quantify “eco-footprinting” in a broad sense. Potential impacts on, e.g., greenhouse effects, eutrophication, natutal resources, eco-toxicity can be quantified for alternative technology  or management scenarios, including policy measures for driving more sustainable investement decisions. Carbon footprinting puts focus on greenhouse gas emissions and water footprinting on water as a natural resource, respectively. In this context, water, energy and ecological footprints should not be addressed in isolation. LCIA methods may assist policy makers in designing fiscal instruments to coincide optima for eco-footprinting and business economy. Provided targeted communications, the methods may also assist public perception and consumer’s informed choices.

§7: Professional platforms

Regulatory aspects of balancing the competing interests of water and energy needs by several sectors and industries, is a multidisciplinary task. There is an emerging need to create professional platforms where competing interests of water and energy, synergies etc. can be discussed and further developed.