UN World Water Development Report - 2022 edition

The UN World Water Development Report is UN-Water's flagship report on water and sanitation issues, focusing on a different theme each year. The report is published by UNESCO, on behalf of UN-Water and its production is coordinated by the UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme. The report gives insight on main trends concerning the state, use and management of freshwater and sanitation

The 2022 edition of UNWWDR was released on World Water Day on March 22, 2022. Titled Groundwater: Making the invisible visible, it describes the challenges and opportunities associated with the development, management and governance of groundwater across the world. The report addresses groundwater-related issues from the perspective of the three main water use sectors – agriculture, human settlements and industry – as well as its interactions with ecosystems and its relation to climate change. It highlights different regional perspectives

Key messages:

• Globally, water use is expected to grow by roughly 1% per year over the next 30 years. 
• This growth is primarily concentrated in emerging economies and middle- and lower-income countries. It is driven by increasing demands from the agriculture (food), industry and energy sectors as well as by municipal and domestic uses. 
• This growth is mainly as a function of industrial development and improving water and sanitation service coverage, in combination with population growth, economic development and shifting diets and consumption patterns. 
• Combined with surface water scarcity, which is increasing due to climate change, the water crises facing humanity is real, but it is avoidable. 
• While our reliance on groundwater will also definitely increase, its full potential remains largely untapped. 
• Groundwater accounts for 99% of all liquid freshwater on Earth.
• Massive volumes of fresh groundwater are present below ground and distributed over the entire globe. However, their abundance and the conditions for their withdrawal can be very different from place to place.
• At the global level, 25% of the total freshwater we use comes from groundwater. 
• Groundwater provides 50% of the volume of freshwater withdrawn for domestic use worldwide, including the drinking water for the vast majority of the rural population.
• It also accounts for around 25% of all water withdrawn for irrigation, serving 38% of the world’s irrigated land.
• Overall, the agricultural sector accounts for 69% of all groundwater abstractions, followed by 22% for domestic uses, and 9% for industrial purposes.
• Groundwater withdrawal boomed during the 20th century, doubling over the past 70 years.
• Groundwater withdrawal for human uses is very important, but it corresponds to only one category of the services offered by groundwater systems. 
• In addition to the provisional services, groundwater systems provide regulatory and supporting services related to water availability, quality, and groundwater-dependent ecosystems. For example, they can play a role in water purification, provided that pollution levels do not exceed their natural decontamination capacity.
• Groundwater systems also provide cultural services including leisure activities. Traditional, religious or spiritual values are sometimes associated with particular wells or natural springs. 
• Groundwater storage depletion, accompanied by declining groundwater levels, occurs when groundwater discharge (i.e. the sum of groundwater withdrawal and ‘unforced’ or natural discharge) exceeds recharge. 
• The rate of global aggregated groundwater depletion is considerable: for the beginning of the present century, the estimates are mostly between 100 and 200 cu.km/year, accounting for roughly 15 to 25% of total groundwater withdrawals. 
• The quality of groundwater is generally good, which means it can be used safely and affordably, without requiring advanced levels of treatment. 
• Groundwater pollution reduces the suitability of abstracted groundwater for drinking purposes and other human uses. And, like groundwater depletion, it can also negatively impact groundwater-dependent ecosystems.
• The Asia-Pacific region is the largest groundwater abstractor in the world, containing seven out of the ten countries that extract most groundwater (Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey). These countries alone account for roughly 60% of the world’s total groundwater withdrawal. 
• While groundwater is abundant across most of the region, its depletion has led to concerns over the sustainability of groundwater usage in different areas across Central Asia, China, South Asia and certain urban centres in Southeast Asia. Climate change is further exacerbating pressure on groundwater resources, particularly in areas with semi-arid to arid climates and on Pacific Small Island Developing States, where groundwater, often the only reliable source of freshwater, is threatened by rising sea levels.
• Groundwater contamination from both anthropogenic and geogenic processes is an additional concern.

The take away messages from the report are:

• The abundance of groundwater resources will prove essential in meeting increasing global demands for water, especially during periods of severe water stress.
• Improved groundwater management and governance are needed in order to avoid overexploitation and contamination.
• Groundwater systems support valuable ecosystem services and can play a critical role in climate change adaptation and mitigation.
• The development of under-exploited groundwater resources in places like Sub-Saharan Africa offers opportunities for food security and economic growth.
• Given its common-pool nature, all data and information about aquifer systems should be made available to groundwater managers.
• Unlocking the full potential of groundwater for ourselves and for future generations will require strong and concerted efforts to manage and use it sustainably.

IPCC Latest Report on Climate Change: Key Findings

The IPCC Working Group III report, Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of climate change was released on April 4, 2022. It is the third instalment of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), which will be completed in 2022.

According to the World Resources Institute, the following are six key findings from the IPCC’s report on climate change mitigation: 

1. Global GHG emissions have continued to rise, but in pathways that limit warming to 1.5 degrees C, they peak before 2025.  

While there are some signs of progress — the annual rate of GHG emissions growth declined from an average of 2.1% between 2000 and 2009 to 1.3% between 2010 and 2019, and 24 countries have sustained their GHG emissions reductions for over a decade — global efforts to mitigate climate change remain far off-track.

2. There's no room for building new fossil fuel infrastructure.

The IPCC shows that in pathways that limit warming to 1.5 degrees C (with no or limited overshoot), just a net 510 Gt of CO₂ can still be emitted before CO₂ emissions reach net zero around mid-century (2050-2055). Yet future CO₂ emissions from existing and planned fossil fuel infrastructure alone could reach 850 Gt — 340 Gt more than that limit.

A mix of strategies can help avoid locking in these CO₂ emissions, including retiring existing fossil fuel infrastructure, cancelling new projects, retrofitting fossil-fueled power plants with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies, and switching to lower-carbon fuels.

3. We need rapid transformations across all systems to avoid the worst climate impacts. 

GHG emissions have risen across all major systems since last assessed. The IPCC finds that reversing course will require decision-makers in government, civil society and the private sector to prioritize the following actions, many of which pay for themselves or cost less than $20 per tonne of CO₂e:

• Scale up clean energy.
• Double-down on innovation to decarbonize industry.
• Incentivize green buildings.
• Redesign cities and shift to zero- and low-carbon transport. 
• Conserve ecosystems and improve food systems.

4. Changes in lifestyle and behaviors have a significant role to play in mitigating climate change.

Worldwide, households with incomes in the top decile, which includes a large share of households in developed countries, are responsible for 36-45% of total GHG emissions, while families earning in the bottom 50% account for just 13-15%. Achieving universal access to modern energy for the world’s poorest, the IPCC further finds, would not significantly impact global emissions.

But shifting consumption patterns, particularly among the world’s wealthiest, can slash GHG emissions by 40-70% by 2050 when compared with current climate policies. Walking or cycling, avoiding long-haul flights, shifting to plant-based diets, cutting food waste, and using energy more efficiently in buildings are among the most effective demand-side mitigation options.

5. Limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C will be impossible without carbon removal. 

The IPCC found that all pathways that limit warming to 1.5 degrees C (with no or limited overshoot) depend on carbon removal. These approaches can include both natural solutions, such as sequestering and storing carbon in trees and soil, as well as technologies that pull CO₂ directly out of the atmosphere.

6. Climate finance for mitigation must be 3 to 6 times higher by 2030 to limit warming to below 2 degrees C. 

Annual public and private finance for climate change mitigation and adaptation rose by up to 60% from 2013 to 2020. However, these gains have slowed in recent years, and to make matters worse, the IPCC found that finance for fossil fuels still outstrips funding for climate action.

This misalignment of global capital has resulted in a substantial shortfall between current levels of climate finance and those needed to mitigate climate change, which persists across all regions and all sectors. This gap is widest in developing countries, particularly those already struggling with debt, poor credit ratings and economic burdens from the COVID-19 pandemic. Investors’ tendency to channel greater shares of capital into their own countries, as well as the systemic underpricing of climate risks, pose additional challenges for scaling up private finance across these nations.

Where Do We Go from Here?

As this latest IPCC report makes clear, holding global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C is still possible, but only if we act immediately. The world needs to peak GHG emissions before 2025, nearly halve GHG emissions by 2030, and reach net-zero CO₂ emissions around mid-century, while also ensuring a just and equitable transition. With escalating risks from droughts, floods, wildfires and other disastrous effects of climate change, these are deadlines we simply cannot afford to miss.