Event details:
Online and In-Person (International Environment House 2)
Water underpins sustainable development, human well-being, and planetary integrity. As water systems deteriorate, risks cascade across food, energy, health, and urban stability. Water insecurity is therefore not a sectoral issue, but a systemic risk multiplier linking ecosystem loss, human mobility, and social and economic instability.
The recent flagship report Global Water Bankruptcy: Living Beyond Our Hydrological Means in the Post-Crisis Era of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), states that the world has entered the era of “water bankruptcy”, a persistent post-crisis condition in which long-term water use has exceeded renewable inflows and safe depletion limits, degrading water systems beyond realistic recovery. Decades of systematically over-drawing their freshwater “capital,” depleting groundwater reserves, reducing environmental flows, degrading water quality, and eroding natural storage in soils, glaciers, and wetlands, have pushed many river basins and aquifers beyond the point where they can be restored without disproportionate social, economic, or environmental costs.
The report argues that serious investment in water can unlock progress across climate, biodiversity, land, food, and health, and serve as a practical platform for cooperation within and between societies.
Leading experts and diplomats will join this briefing and dialogue to present the key findings of the report and examine their implications for international policy and governance.
Registration
Please register for online or in-person participation: https://www.genevaenvironmentnetwork.org/events/global-water-bankruptcy-stakeholder-briefing-and-dialogue-with-prof-kaveh-madani/
