The short film WASTE, which illuminates the environmental cost of food waste, has been launched today in connection with World Environment Day.

A tremendous amount of water can be saved by reducing losses and waste of food – as much as ten times the water flow in the Nile. By curbing food waste, energy is saved and the emission of greenhouse gases can be reduced. Equally important, consumers can save a great deal of money by not letting their food go to waste.

SIWI has been a pioneer in addressing the issue of food waste, and has together with IWMI and FAO raised the question in the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD). In 2008, SIWI released the report Saving Water from Field to Fork, which shows how the huge losses and waste of food have significant implications for water, energy, land-use, and generally contribute to environmental degradation. In the making of the film, SIWI has provided knowledge and advise on the linkages between food waste and water.

WASTE is a collaboration between SIWI, UNEP, WWF Germany and FAO. It builds on the film Taste the Waste of Water, which SIWI launched last year during the World Water Week in Stockholm. This new version has been translated into eight languages and presents a more comprehensive overview of the negative effects of food waste, in relation to a range of environmental aspects.

The film has been produced by Schnittstelle Thurn GbR. For further information, please contact Susanne Blech: susanne_blech@web.de or Jan Lundqvist: jan.lundqvist@siwi.org.

Watch the film in the different languages:
German
Spanish
French
Chinese
Russian
Arabic
Portuguese

The debate will consist of live broadcast expert panels from London, followed by online discussions where leading academics, thinkers and business representatives respond to and debate with a global audience.

SIWI’s Andreas Lindström will engage in the online panel discussion on “Food and Water for Energy” at 1.45 p.m. and SIWI’s Jens Berggren is present in London and will take part of the “Energy for Water” live discussion at 3 p.m.

Visit The Guardian’s site to register, follow the live streams, and get involved in the discussions!

Full Programme:

11.45 – 12.30 (GMT):

Live online discussion with expert panel consisting of:

• Anna Swaithes, head of water and food security policy at SABMiller
• Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University
• Charles Iceland is senior associate at the World Resources Institute’s markets & enterprise programme.

13.45 – 14.30:

Live online discussion with expert panel consisting of:

• Giulio Boccaletti, expert associate principal at McKinsey & Company Inc.
• Andreas Lindström is programme manager at Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI).
• Betsy Otto is director of Aqueduct at the World Resources Institute.
• Kyle Rabin is director of water and energy programmes at GRACE Communications Foundation.

15.45 – 16.30:

Live online discussion with expert panel consisting of:

• Johan Rockström, professor in natural resource management at Stockholm University, and executive director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre
• Stuart Orr, freshwater manager at WWF International
• Paul Street, director of sustainable solutions at Black & Veatch.

SIWI’s niche is largely between policy and implementation, often bridging the two, and as such promoting networking and interaction. SIWI’s vision is that of a water wise world. In essence, that is a world aware that it would not survive without cherishing water, as the fundamental resource underpinning economic and social development and as a human right. SIWI’s mission is to generate and promote knowledge, solutions and tools leading to water wise decisions for sustainable development.

It is SIWI’s intention that this strategy shall not only act as guidance for us but also be valuable to anyone who is interested to learn more about SIWI and how we intend to make a difference in working towards achieving a water wise world.

Click here to download the strategy!

SIWI’s Executive Director, Torgny Holmgren, is moderating a Panel Discussion on Strategic Water Resource Management. The discussion highlights water as an essential element for socio-economic development and maintaining healthy eco-systems. How may water resource management be approached to optimise available resources?

SIWI’s Chairman Peter Forssman is participating in a Workshop on the Future Challenges Affecting Water Availability, identifying the depletion, allocation and distribution challenges that arid regions face, and project how they may develop in the coming years climate change is a key factor affecting water availability.

Read more about the summit here.

Some of the key messages from the summit are:

• Water is more important than oil for the United Arab Emirates.
• Water and energy are mutually dependent for production and distribution.
• Massive investments in solar energy are planned to manage desalination plants in the Gulf area.
• Cooperation beyond the sector limits within food, energy and water is essential to combat poverty and increase life quality globally.
• Valuing and pricing water is difficult but crucial to provide incentives for people to economise with water resources.
• Energy production is built up on water supply when accessible, but other solutions have to be found when water is not accessible.

The water consultation is part of the UN-system led “global dialogue” comprising of 50-100 Country Consultations and eleven global Thematic Consultations, including one on water. The water consultation is mainly taking place as an online discussion using different social media. The purpose is to bring voices from a broad range of stakeholders to build consensus around key future challenges related to water and the need for a new global water goal in the post-2015 development agenda.

The thematic consultation on water is divided in three sub-consultations:

• Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)
• Water resources
• Wastewater management and water quality

On January 14, all sub-consultations started their online activity inviting everyone to share their insights and opinions on different topics. Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) will lead and moderate the first week under the Water Resources Management theme, which opens with a focus on water and energy.

Water for Energy – Energy for Water

Water and energy linkages have rapidly risen to the forefront of attention among urgent themes related to development challenges in the international community. The importance of water as a key pillar to sustain human well-being, secure livelihood opportunities and provide bases for diverse productive uses has long been recognized. In a similar manner, the need for energy to raise people out of poverty and fuel growing economies, whilst sustaining mature ones, is a well-established fact. The notion about how these resources are linked and dependent on each other has for a long time gone unnoticed by the broader global community, but not any more. The fact that energy needs water in its production and that water needs energy in order to be extracted, treated and moved is quickly gathering awareness as the demand for diminishing water resources increases.

Simultaneously the demand for energy is projected to grow massively over the next 20 years. The challenges and opportunities tied to this development are great and have been recognised in different ways by major development institutions. The World Economic Forum ranks water supply challenges at number three on their Global Risk Ranking for the coming years. In the UN report titled “Secretary-General’s Initial Input to the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals” (2012), the entire nexus of water, energy and food security is ranked as separate topics on the top three positions for priority areas among member states.

You can read our full paper about water and energy at www.worldwewant2015.org/water/waterresources where you can contribute to the discussion and post your own comments. You can also participate through social media via Twitter using the hashtag #waterpost2015 or visit the Facebook page WaterPost2015.

SIWI encourages everyone to take the opportunity to participate in the consultation on water and energy during January 14-20, 2013, and be part of creating the world we want.

The outcome from the different discussions will be summarised into policy recommendations in a final report that will be transmitted to the High-level Panel on Post-2015 appointed by the UN Secretary General at the end of March.

SIWI’s Torgny Holmgren on Water Resources Management

With its vision for a “water wise world”, the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) recently produced its 2013-2017 strategy, placing its various programmes and activities within five thematic areas: Climate Change; Transboundary Water Management; Water Governance; Water, Energy and Food Nexus; and Water Economics. In this article, we highlight why we work with these themes and the key services we provide under each theme.

At Elsevier the study has been executed by the SciVal Analytics unit with guidance from experts in the field of water research from the Aquatic and Green Sciences portfolio and Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI). Authors of this report are: Britt-Louise Anderson, Christiane Barranguet, Jens Berggren, Judith Kamalski, Iris Kisjes, and Alexander van Servellen.

Published in 2012

Published in 2012.

Addendum

This addendum clarifies issues relating to the research results published in:

Falkenmark, M. (2012) ‘Food security: overcoming water scarcity realities’, in Feeding a Thirsty World: Challenges and Opportunities for a Water and Food Secure World, SIWI Report 31. Jägerskog, A. and Jønch Clausen, T., (ed). Stockholm International Water Institute, Stockholm.

Clarification of citation

The chapter is based on the in May 2012 latest accessible modeling in the well published multiyear research project at Stockholm Resilience Center starting in 2007. The project is being summarised in the book:

Rockström, J., Falkenmark, M., Folke, C., Lannerstad, M., Hoff, H., Heinke, J., Gordon, L., Enfors, E., & Barron, J. (2013). Confronting the water challenge in a turbulent world. Towards a green-blue resilience approach for global sustainability. Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.

The results presented in the chapter originate from work in progress. The forthcoming publication will consider additional water productivity gains for crop and livestock production, different fractions of animal source foods in the diet, and sensitivity of the analysis, depending on the chosen assumptions.

Published in 2012.

Stockholm Water Front Magazine, issue no 4, 2011.