MEASURING WATER USE IN A GREEN ECONOMY - UNEP

Measuring water use in a green economy
Working Group on
Sustainable Water Management
The objectives of the International Resource Panel are to:
a. provide independent, coherent and authoritative scientific assessments of policy relevance on
the sustainable use of natural resources and in particular their environmental impacts over the
full life cycle; and
b. contribute to a better understanding of how to decouple economic growth from environmental
degradation.
The rationale and overall objective of the Working Group (WG) relate to both bullet points and the
core strategic basis for the work of the International Resource Panel.
The first report in the series drew on existing literature and conceptual frameworks developed by
the IRP in other research, to provide a conceptual and analytical basis for decoupling policy and
decision making in water resource management. In particular, it focuses on how decoupling can
enable maximize water efficiency and productivity, reduce water pollution in all the major water
sectors (i.e. agriculture, industry, domestic, and environmental flows), and at the same time
support sustained growth and human wellbeing.
This second report analyses the different ways for quantifying and accounting for water flows
and productivity within the economy (including environmental needs). Based on data from the
literature, the report provides the current state of knowledge of the different indicators and
tools for quantifying water productivity and highlights why this is important for developing
robust allocation and management systems that preserve the natural capital. It is therefore an
important piece of work to inform the discussions on decoupling economic growth from water
use and impacts and the debate on resource productivity indicators going beyond GDP and
carbon that underpin a green economy.
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