How do we Raise the Profile of Climate Adaptation?

Interview with Amane Advisors

Bill Malarkey

Managing Partner, North America Amane Advisors

Amane Advisors is a leading international strategic advisory firm focused on water and resource recovery in the circular economy, with eight offices around the world (UK, France, USA, Switzerland, Spain, Bahrain, Singapore and China). We help our clients achieve sustainable growth while also helping to protect and regenerate the Earth’s resources. Our clients range from innovative start-ups to large global industrial companies and private equity investors worldwide. If you could make one type of water innovation mainstream overnight, which would it be? Water reuse, which could be expanded exponentially utilising existing technology and would make a major difference in many water-stressed areas.

Climate change is water change. Do you agree? At Amane we see water as being the central point of the entire climate change challenge. Climate impacts the Earth’s entire water cycle, which in turn has direct effects on food and energy supplies, economic production, biodiversity and ocean health. Any serious attempts to either minimise climate change or improve climate resilience will have to address a range of water-related issues. Do you think your clients are adequately considering climate change adaptation in their business strategies? All of our clients - whether technology providers, water users such as utilities or industrials, or even financial investors - are now including the impacts of climate change in the ongoing development and adaptation of their strategies, assessing its relevance as a challenge or an opportunity (or sometimes both). The next big challenge will be for corporations in “non-water” sectors to develop strategies to adequately address the growing water risk to their own operations. Are you confident that we can achieve SDG 6 - “to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all” - by 2030?

Not very confident, unfortunately. That target date is now less than eight years away and I’m afraid that, despite the real progress being made in some regions and the great work being done by a number of organisations, the gap is still too large to be closed on time. ‘‘ I would love to see a future in which water is automatically considered as a significant factor in any strategic business decision

What does a ‘water positive’ future look like to you?

I would love to see a future in which water is automatically considered as a significant factor in any strategic business decision, both as an irreplaceable input to production and as a likely area of environmental impact from that same production. I expect that a whole range of investment decisions will look very different if they start to be assessed with that sort of “water positive” approach.

Solar: The Future Of Desalination

Exclusive interview: H2O Global News editor Siôn Geschwindt caught up with Louise Bleach, vice president of business development at Desolenator, to find out more about their unique approach to solar desalination.

When astronauts first went to space they looked back and marvelled at the mighty blue planet we call home.

Over 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered in water. But crucially, only 0.5% of that water is fresh and available for use.

This freshwater – found in our lakes, rivers and underground – is essential for our survival. But as populations grow and climate change accelerates, water scarcity worsens. Even today, 1 in 3 people do not have access to safe drinking water.

Ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, as outlined in UN SDG 6, is one of greatest challenges of our time and requires significant investment, and immediate action.

The first port of call is to conserve and restore the quality of the 0.5% of freshwater we have available and make it equitably accessible. But what about those parts of the world where freshwater simply isn’t available?

According to UNICEF, over two billion people live in countries where water supply is inadequate, and half of the world’s population could be living in areas facing water scarcity by as early as 2025.

Globally, more than 300 million people depend on desalination

In some situations, the best option is to turn to the remaining 97% – the oceans.

Desalination of saltwater for drinking isn’t knew. In its simplest form it has been practiced for centuries, but was formalised more recently in the 50s and 60s.

The most popular methods are thermal desalination and reverse osmosis. Thermal desalination uses heat to vaporise fresh water from seawater or brackish water.

Reverse osmosis separates fresh water by forcing seawater or brackish water through a membrane at high pressure.

Globally, more than 300 million people depend on desalination, with several countries, such as the Bahamas, Maldives and Malta, relying on the technology for all their water needs.

The Middle East accounts for just under half of total capacity, while Asia, China, the United States, and South America are scaling up their desalination capacity fast.

Today, there are more than 17,000 desalination plants globally, producing 107 million cubic meters of desalinated water every day.

So what’s the catch?

“The current approach to desalination is simply unsustainable,” says Louise Bleach, vice president of business development at Desolenator. “It is highly