World Energy Council and World Water Council join forces to encourage public policy to address the "water-energy nexus"

Marseille - The strong connexion between energy and water requires regular dialogue and the sharing of experiences and solutions. Now, their ever more interlinked future brings our two organisations together to tackle the world's energy and water challenges.

At the 6th World Water Forum held this week in Marseille, France, Pierre Gadonneix, Chairman of the World Energy Council (WEC), and Loïc Fauchon, Chairman of the World Water Council, announced their commitment to cooperate in the long-term to promote greater energy efficiency in the management of water, recognise and improve energy usage in the water sector, and facilitate cross-sector dialogue. This announcement is the result of the longstanding commitment of both chairmen to develop a long-term partnership following a series of regular exchanges they had held since 2009.

 

Under the cooperation, the two organisations will:

 

Share data, studies, and information, and contribute to their mutual visibility , including:

 

On this occasion, Pierre Gadonneix, President of World Energy Council, says: "Water and energy have a unique relationship made of mutual interactions, one being either a vulnerability or an opportunity to the other. More importantly, they face similar long-term challenges in terms of rising demand - driven by demographic growth and pulled by global development - and addressing the issues of climate change, energy and water poverty which constitute fundamental barriers to human development.

"Both sectors also have comparable opportunities, especially in terms of the resources and technologies that are available to us to address those challenges: the important potential for efficiency to mitigate the growth of demand, resources which are numerous but concentrated and increasingly difficult to access, more sophisticated technologies which are also more expensive, and eventually massive and urgent investment needs.

"Therefore, similar and coordinated solutions and policies should be developed in terms of governance on both national and international levels. This has been the driver for our decision to strengthen the collaboration between the World Water Council and the World Energy Council."

Loïc Fauchon, President of the World Water Council, adds: "At the heart of climate negotiations, we need to shift from the concept of energy-climate towards one of energy-water. Recognising the nexus between water and energy will translate into greater funding for water infrastructure.  Energy and water both lie at the heart of securing tomorrow's world."