Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Water is the middle child in global climate policy

Improved management of water has been shown to have important benefits in both climate adaptation and mitigation. Water must be explicitly considered in climate policy, on par with its energy and land siblings.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Comparison of two scenarios for primary energy resource demand (energy sources) and the corresponding demand for water in the Latin America and Caribbean region, simulated with an Integrated Assessment Model3.

References

  1. Fawcett, A. A. et al. Science 350, 1168–1169 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Griscom, B. W. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 114, 11645–11650 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Santos da Silva, S. R. et al. Nat. Commun. 12, 1276 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Santos da Silva, S. R. et al. PLoS ONE 14, e0215013 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Muñoz Castillo, R. et al. J. Clean. Prod. 214, 52–61 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Hejazi, M. I. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 112, 10635–10640 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Vörösmarty, C. J., Green, P., Salisbury, J. & Lammers, R. B. Science 289, 284–288 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Kiguchi, M., Shen, Y., Kanae, S. & Oki, T. Hydrol. Sci. J. 60, 14–29 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Graham, N. T. et al. Water Resour. Res. 54, 6423–6440 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. O’Neill, B. C. et al. Glob. Environ. Change 42, 169–180 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Graham, N. T. et al. Environ. Res. Lett. 15, 014007 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Rodriguez, D. J. et al. Modeling the Water–Energy Nexus: How Do Water Constraints Affect Energy Planning in South Africa? (World Bank Group, 2017).

  13. Rodriguez, D. J. et al. Thirsty Energy: Modeling the Water–Energy Nexus in China (World Bank Group, 2018).

  14. Borgomeo, E. et al. The Water–Energy–Food Nexus in the Middle East and North Africa: Scenarios for a Sustainable Future (World Bank Group, 2018).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Miralles-Wilhelm, F. Water is the middle child in global climate policy. Nat. Clim. Chang. 12, 110–112 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-01154-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-01154-y

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing Anthropocene

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Anthropocene newsletter — what matters in anthropocene research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Anthropocene