A framework and tools for tackling water theft
By Lis Stedman
The theft of water is an under-explored issue, but it is clear that legality or illegality is extremely complex and not always...
Groundwater: Nature’s hidden gem
Published in June, the World Bank’s global groundwater report, The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Economics of Groundwater in Times of Climate Change, highlights...
Assessing Europe’s progress with the UN Sustainable Development Goals
By Lis Stedman
The new European Environment Agency (EEA) report on progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across the European Union and EEA cooperating...
A decade of extremes
By Erika Yarrow-Soden
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) report The Global Climate 2011-2020: A Decade of Acceleration punctuated the close of 2023 with the second...
The path to better valuing of water
By Keith Hayward
The focus of this year’s UN World Water Development Report, the eighth in what has become a series of annual, thematic reports,...
The systemic switch for surviving drought
By Keith Hayward
Highlighting drought as an “existential threat to many parts of the world”, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, in its ‘GAR...
The physical certainties of climate change
With COP26 underway, The Source reviews key IPCC messages on the physical science of climate change
The IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) on the ‘physical...
Sector opportunities for methane emission action
The pledges and action plans to cut carbon emissions emanating from COP26 indicate that there is top-level recognition of the urgency of the climate...
Groundwater: the many challenges of a hidden resource
Billions of people’s lives depend on groundwater sources that are polluted and overexploited or at risk. Some of the damage is irreversible and, according...
Desalination and the drive for progress with unconventional resources
By Keith Hayward
Use of desalination to produce fresh water has escalated dramatically over recent years. The aim of the global assessment by the team...