On Wednesday 29 May, the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, Maroš Šefčovič, launched EU Green Week 2024 as part of the Commission’s #WaterWIseEU campaign to raise awareness of the poor management of this resource and the impact of pollution, ecosystem degradation and climate change.
“The water cycle is broken. We have allowed ourselves to believe that water is simply something that will always be there. But that is no longer necessarily the case. As climate and demographic change drive demand for water, we must work together to fix the cycle”, said Mr Šefčovič.
He reviewed the climatic disasters that Europe has experienced in recent years, such as the droughts in Spain and Greece and the major floods in France, Belgium and Germany.
According to the United Nations, global demand for clean water will exceed available resources by 40% by 2030.
The World Bank estimates that the world’s food system will need 40-50% more water over the next three decades, while demand on the energy sector will increase by 85%.
In view of these figures, the Vice-President considers that adaptation solutions will be essential in all sectors, as will the introduction of an “intelligent” water economy.
He went on to point out that the Horizon Europe programme has earmarked more than €1.3 billion for research and innovation projects in the water sector.
“This is an area where we need to ensure we do not fall behind the rest of the world: while patents linked to water management have steadily increased over the last decades, only 3% of those are European patents”, he warned.
Finally, the Vice-President called for a fair distribution of water between the various users and the needs of nature, since “water knows no borders” and “resilience in the face of water can only be the result of joint coordination”. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)