Ms Jessika Roswall, EU Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy,
Excellencies, colleagues and friends.
My thanks to the European Commission for organizing this important dialogue on water resilience and water security for all.
We are united by something far greater than borders: the global hydrological cycle. This cycle rain, rivers, groundwater, glaciers, forests and atmospheric moisture binds us all.
We know that water is central not just to the sustainable development agenda, but to our very lives. And yet we are neither managing nor respecting water. We are in fact carelessly squandering this most precious resource, without which we cannot exist. The impacts of this carelessness are being felt by billions of people.
We also know that as part of addressing the triple planetary crisis the crisis of climate change; the crisis of nature, biodiversity and land loss; and the crisis of pollution and waste we must adopt a holistic approach to the global hydrological cycle, encompassing blue and green water, and atmospheric flows.
As highlighted in the Global Commission on the Economics of Water report, the global hydrological cycle is a global common good. Water, nutrients, sediments and, of course, pollutants move continuously from source to sea, from upstream to downstream. Water transcends borders.
Just to give one example, atmospheric flows play a crucial role in global rainfall patterns creating rivers in the sky that run from one distant continent to another. Ecosystems, particularly forests and vegetated wetlands, can act as natural pumps, recycling rainfall and contributing to atmospheric moisture through evapotranspiration. This means that deforestation weakens rainfall far beyond regional borders.
Friends,
We are seeing growing recognition of the need to protect this vital resource. The 2023 Water Conference saw many Member States request support for scaled-up action on water, including through the Water Action Agenda. A resolution on strengthening water policies at the sixth United Nations Environment Assembly asked for scaled-up action on Integrated Water Resources Management.
At COP29, the Baku Dialogue on Water for Climate Action was launched by the COP29 Presidency, in partnership with the UN Economic Commission for Europe, the World Meteorological Organisation and UNEP, as host of the initiative. I also welcome the European Water Resilience Strategy, which is a good example of the kind of integrated and regional collaboration we need.
But the hard truth is that global commitments are not being matched by finance and action. Half of all countries reporting on SDG 6 have one or more types of freshwater-related ecosystems in a state of degradation. SDG6 is the second least funded SDG. None of its targets are on track.
Today I want to leave you with five integrated priorities: clear, interconnected actions that will ensure that our commitments translate into resilience, and that the cycle is restored and protected, rather than allowed to further decline.
First, we must revive and scale monitoring and observation of the full water cycle. We must deploy networks and tools ground stations and remote sensing that track river flow, glaciers and snowpacks, soil moisture and groundwater levels. We have to capture the full hydrological cycle: blue water, green water, atmospheric moisture, ice and snow. Only then can we anticipate floods, track drying basins, monitor the rivers in the sky, assess soil moisture and therefore design workable interventions.
Second, we must revalue the hydrological cycle as a global common good. Water is not merely an input factor or commodity. To treat the hydrological cycle as a global common good, we must value ecological services: forests and wetlands that recycle rainfall, glaciers that provide steady flows, soils that retain moisture. We must stop subsidies and land use practices that degrade these. And we must invest in restoring natures infrastructure.
Third, we must integrate water issues across climate, biodiversity and land use, and pollution policies. We cannot act in silos. What we do in agriculture affects forests; our wastewater management impacts biodiversity; what happens with land use upstream affects rivers downstream; changes in climate alter atmospheric moisture and rainfall distribution. We must embed water resilience in climate plans, in biodiversity plans, in land restoration strategies, in pollution control policies, and of course in infrastructure and agriculture policies. This holistic approach ensures that water resilience is embedded across sectors and scales.
Fourth, we need to mobilize investment and align finance with water risk and resilience. Commitments exist. But finance lags. We need to channel investment into places and interventions where risk is highest. We must require all major investments to assess water risk, support circularity (like wastewater reuse, resource recovery), and include Nature-based Solutions. We need blended financing, innovative instruments and public-private partnerships to scale.
Fifth and finally, we must ensure inclusive governance and listen to the voices of those most affected. The cycle binds us all, but impacts are not felt equally. Discussions on water resilience must meaningfully reflect the realities and priorities of the Global South, as underscored during the Africa Water Investment Summit. Communities in semi-arid regions, Small Island Developing States, regions dependent on glacier melt, people with less capacity to adapt these are already suffering more. Decision-making and investment must reflect their realities and priorities.
Excellencies, colleagues and friends,
Ultimately, we need a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach aligning national actions with both regional and global cooperation.
There are upcoming moments where we can start to make this approach a reality.
At COP30 in Belm, Brazil, UNEP will co-host the first high-level meeting of the Baku Dialogue with the COP30 Presidency and partners to turn commitments made under the Water Declaration into action.
Water resource management across the global hydrological cycle is also an area that I have suggested Member States could focus resolutions on at the upcoming seventh session of the United Nations Environment Assembly, taking place in Nairobi in December. At the assembly, we are co-organizing an event on the Global Hydrological Cycle. I invite all Member States and partners to attend.
These milestones, along with the UN 2026 and 2028 Water Conferences, offer an opportunity to advance integrated, cross-sectoral water governance that aligns the climate, biodiversity and land restoration agendas, and accelerates progress on SDG6.
The global hydrological cycle binds ecosystems, economies and people. The water in one countrys lake this year will become water in another countrys forest next year. The water in our bodies has cycled through many other people and will do so again.
To create a water resilient and water secure future for all, we must act, as one, to protect this cycle and so our own futures.
I added this back in, as the commission and WMO will be in the room, and the request is to name check them.
