Urban water economics - the role of cities in valuing and governing water as a global common good

This event will present and discuss the findings of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water (GCEW) to establish connections with current and future water action in cities. The session will be structured around novel insights, which are important for local and city governments to consider.

While water is usually considered a local issue, the GCEW argues that water economics has a global dimension as well, when one considers how evapotranspiration channels water vapour across long distances, when the water footprints of our modes of production, consumption, land use or urbanisation are considered.

In September 2024, at the One Water Summit, the GCEW will present novel scientific insights about the physical changes in global water endowments and their economic and social consequences. It will highlight opportunities and action pathways that contribute to a just transition towards water security, climate mitigation and nature conservation.

The panel will explore how cities can build on these new developments to deliver on their own agendas, including SDG 11.
Some of the topics that will be considered include:
• Enhancing urban resilience to climate change
• Sustainable urban water and land footprint
• Consumption and production patterns
• Land use planning and water-rights
• Tackling distribution inefficiencies and inequity
• Developing circular water economies
• Water systems and cities: from rivers and aquifers to hydrological cycle catalysts

The event will include the following panellists:
- Henk Ovink (Executive Director, Global Commission on the Economics of Water - moderator)
- Mariana Mazzucato (Co-Chair, Global Commission on the Economics of Water; director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose – key note / panellist)
- Aromar Revi (Commissioner & lead expert, Global Commission on the Economics of Water; Director Indian Institute for Human Settlements – panellist)
- Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr (Mayor of Freetown – respondent)
- C40 [Other mayors or experts, ideally from LMIC as respondent/s]
- Urban Water Resilience Initiative representative TBC
- Philipp Rode (Executive Director of LSE Cities – respondent)
- Lisa Scholten (Delft University of Technology, Associate Professor – respondent)