A window into what we’re reading at the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program 

Global Water Stress May Create a Food Crisis (Guardian) 

In its recent report, The Economics of Water, the Global Commission on the Economics of Water examined world hydrological systems and their impact on water availability—and warn of imminent shortcomings in food production. The study asserts that the demand for freshwater will outweigh the supply by 40% in 2030, highlighting a significant shift in previous freshwater requirement estimates. 

The new report illustrates global interlinkages of water movements, referring to them as “atmospheric rivers,” which transport moisture from one region to another. “Blue Water” represents bodies such as rivers and lakes, while “Green Water” is the soil moisture required by plants. Both of these categories are likely to be influenced by an increase in global temperature by 1 degree Celsius—as well as rampant deforestation, causing a further intensification in water, food, and agricultural crises.  

As different countries benefit from different sorts of global moisture flows, the report underscores the importance of recognizing fresh water as a global common good. These new findings should lead experts to underscore the importance of addressing the looming water stress concerns through international cooperation, while keeping an eye on issues such as such as equitable access, availability, and conflict. 

READ | War and Climate Change Intensify Global Water-related Conflicts 

Nepal’s Medical Waste Innovation (BBC) 

When staff members from Nepal’s Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) complained about the way an onsite medical waste incinerator induced persistent coughs, breathing difficulties, headaches, sore eyes, and rashes, officials pondered how to respond. The furnace required high temperatures to dispose of medical waste—including the placenta, an organ made up almost entirely of liquid. So, a solution seemed difficult at first. 

A clean innovation emerged when Health Environment and Climate Action Foundation (HECAF360), an NGO, approached TUTH to replace the furnace with an underground biodigester that was big enough to contain most hospital and food waste. The methane produced by the biodigester also fuels a stove in the hospital kitchen and replaces some of its liquefied petroleum gas requirements, demonstrating an exemplary use of circularity and waste management innovation. 

TUTH did face a significant issue with its staff in utilizing this new technology. Employees were accustomed to the earlier system, and too overburdened with their medical duties to adapt easily to the biodigester. This circumstance underscores the need to incorporate behavior change mechanisms as green technologies such as new waste management systems are deployed, especially in fast-paced and pre-established environments like hospitals.  

READ | Food Waste: A Low-Hanging Fruit for Methane Reductions 

The fight Against Global Poverty Fight Faces New Barriers (Guardian) 

The World Bank’s latest edition of  Poverty, Prosperity, and Planet assesses the impact of global challenges on poverty eradication. Its researchers argue that an unprecedented overlap of global crises in a post-COVID age, including war, an ever-increasing debt crisis, and climate change, are set to delay established targets to reduce poverty across the globe.  

Sub-Saharan Africa offered a notable case of extreme poverty’s stubborn persistence, due to factors including low economic growth, political fragility and increasingly-intense extreme weather events. But the problems are broad in scope. Global poverty rate fell by almost 30% from 1990 to 2024, owing to China’s rapid development, but that uptick now has stagnated. Wealth and income inequality too has remained unchanged in most parts of the Global South and is worsening in others. 

World Bank experts warn that the UN target of eradicating extreme poverty by 2030 is not feasible anymore. This development indicates a clear necessity to go beyond the business-as-usual approaches amid multiple crises, and strategize solutions with an intersectional lens moving forward. Solving the crisis will also require breaking down existing silos and redefining funding pathways and agendas now tailored to the needs of specific developing countries. 

READ | World Population Day: Revitalizing Discourse on Population, Development, and Rights