Water injustice in a changing climate

The paper analyzes water injustice across OECD countries, finding a primary focus on water scarcity and identifying distributive, procedural, and recognitional injustices. It argues that current responses are insufficient to address root causes and recommends a systems perspective and local context focus for future governance.

• The systematic review indicates that existing literature focuses predominantly on water scarcity, and that current responses to water injustice fail to address the underlying root causes. Water injustice is typically operationalized by combining distributional, procedural, and recognitional dimensions.
• The literature identifies four types of distributive water injustices: state and industry priorities, unjust energy transitions, unequal adaptive capacities, and maladaptive outcomes. Procedural injustices include practical barriers to participation and historical exclusion from water governance, with participatory interventions suggested as a remedy.
• Recognitional water injustices are characterized by the misrecognition of root causes of water injustice, local knowledge, and Indigenous epistemologies and ontologies.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2026). Water injustice in a changing climate. https://www.sei.org/publications/water-injustice-in-a-changing-climate/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Water injustice in a changing climate. 2026. https://www.sei.org/publications/water-injustice-in-a-changing-climate/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Water injustice in a changing climate |date=19 March 2026 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/water-injustice-in-a-changing-climate/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2026water, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Water injustice in a changing climate}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2026}, month = mar, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/water-injustice-in-a-changing-climate/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }