UN-water analytical brief on water for climate mitigation
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has assessed that to hold global warming to 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius requires limiting the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by reducing the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide and/or by increasing the sinks of these gases through for example carbon dioxide removal (CDR) from the atmosphere. Actions to achieve this are grouped by IPCC into ‘climate mitigation measures’. A tabulation of all measures assessed by IPCC is in Annex 1 (IPCC, 2023). Water is a necessary input to many of the clean energy measures for transitioning away from fossil fuel-based energy and for carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere. These measures need sufficient water supply to achieve climate mitigation and other benefits required from them. Effective water and wastewater management can also contribute directly towards emission reduction targets as poorly managed wastewater and sanitation systems, and some wetlands, reservoirs and irrigation systems, are sources of emissions of greenhouse gases, especially methane and nitrous oxide. The International Universities Climate Alliance (IUCA) in partnership with the UN-Water Expert Group on Water and Climate Change has estimated the water requirements of a number of the climate mitigation measures assessed by the IPCC as tabulated in Annex 2 (IUCA, 2024). This work also estimated the relative ‘water efficiency’ of various mitigation actions. For example, for every billion litres of water used to enable clean energy to substitute for fossil-fuel based energy, green hydrogen production is estimated to save around 68.4 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, second-generation liquid biofuels around 2 gigatonnes, and electrification of light duty vehicles around 1.7 gigatonnes. IUCA estimates every billion litres of water directed at maintaining or restoring the water tables of peatlands would sequester around 18.5 gigatonnes of emissions.
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