A Low Carbon Water Industry in 2050 - Environment Agency

demand (by the water industry) to take account of the intermittency of renewable
energy sources and increased emphasis on harnessing renewable energy from water
industry activities. There will also need to be strong links between the water industry,
the agriculture sector and waste companies in order to ensure interlinked cradle to
cradle planning for all sectors.
The task of engaging stakeholders and facilitating cultural change should not be
underestimated. Significant end-user education will be required to communicate to
users the value of water and assign greater consumer responsibility for the protection
of this valuable resource. However, as Caffoor states, “the climatic stresses of the
future will contribute to the removal of these barriers and to a culture change in the
stakeholder base.”
In realising the CO 2 e reduction targets the industry and its regulators will need to
take a risk-based approach, with greater emphasis on balancing the need to reduce
carbon emissions with the need to protect human health. One effect of climate
change could be an increase in water-borne diseases; emerging risks like this will
also have to be managed carefully and effectively. This will require regulatory reform
as the Environment Agency, Defra and Ofwat were not set up to deal with the riskbased
nature of these issues. Crawford-Brown notes that “someone needs to
perform this balancing, but at present it is not clear that any one authority has the
power or incentive” to do so.
It is the view of the authors that to reduce energy consumption in water industry
operations the emphasis will have to move towards prevention of contamination at
source. “The carbon footprint of cleaning water after it has been contaminated is
almost always significantly higher than preventing the contaminant from entering the
water in the first place.” (Crawford-Brown). Such prevention measures will require
large changes in agricultural practices. The impacts of climate change will inevitably
force changes in land management. However, ensuring alignment of land
management to reduce contamination with management for agricultural productivity
will be a significant challenge. Fully integrated catchment management, including
catchment based consents, will be required to ensure optimum environmental, social
and economic solutions.
Policy Implications
To implement all the changes that will be required to move to a low carbon water
industry, significant policy and regulatory reform will be needed to further incentivise
the low carbon approach. Policy will need to encourage the use of lower quality,
previously unused water sources. Regulatory changes will be necessary to reward
carbon innovation through tax breaks. To encourage cross boundary co-operation
between water industry stakeholders, institutional reform will be required. It is noted
that Government must address the Shadow Price of Carbon, as its current price is
too low to incentivise major change. Also, changes to the Renewable Obligations
Certificates are required to allow water companies to claim for internal low-head
hydro schemes. Ofwat’s previous remit, to ensure an inexpensive water supply, will
need to be reformed, to align the whole industry with the challenge of reducing
carbon emissions. Regulatory reform for abstraction licensing will be needed, both in
terms of increased emphasis on water efficiency in those organisations requiring
abstraction licenses and license durations. Short duration licensing will become more
common.
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