Slutrapportering to Riksbanken Jublieumsfond Project: CADWAGO - Climate change adaptation and water governance - reconciling food security, renewable energy and the provision of multiple ecosystem services

This final report details the outcomes of the CADWAGO project (October 2012 – March 2016), an international research initiative led by the Stockholm Environment Institute. The project aimed to address global water security and climate change adaptation by promoting systemic transformations in water governance to reconcile food security, renewable energy, and ecosystem services.

• The project identified that power dynamics and conflicts of interest often distort deliberative processes in water governance. An intersectional lens, including gender equity, highlighted that interest and agency conflicts act as barriers to equitable transformation. This explains why river basin management plans (RBMPs) under the EU Water Framework Directive often lack coherence with the priorities of stakeholders.
• Extreme climate events, such as floods and droughts, can act as catalysts for self-organised governance changes. These crises allow for the emergence of horizontal pathways and collaborative actions across sectors that are typically blocked by bureaucratic routines. Evidence from Australia and Canada indicates a preference for state or state-citizen hybrid governance models over neo-liberal paradigms.
• The project utilized a governance learning process through workshops and events to facilitate the co-production of knowledge. This approach enabled co-learning across the science-society interface, respecting participant diversity and creating lasting networks and insights into governance transformations.
• Research conducted in late 2015 suggests that water is increasingly framed through a 'securitization' narrative, treating climate change as a 'threat multiplier'. This interest-centric narrative often ignores equity and reproduces existing power structures, which the report suggests can amplify inequities and create conditions for violent conflict.
• The project proposes a shift from a 'water security' narrative to a 'water equity' narrative. This involves embracing a 'coexistence' framework where diverse and irreconcilable governance pathways are accepted to enhance adaptive capacity under uncertainty, empowering stakeholders who operate outside pre-existing structures.
• CADWAGO's collaborative approach influenced international policy, specifically resulting in changes to the documentation of the OECD principles of good water governance through work conducted in the UK case study.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2016). Slutrapportering to Riksbanken Jublieumsfond Project: CADWAGO - Climate change adaptation and water governance - reconciling food security, renewable energy and the provision of multiple ecosystem services. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/final-report-of-cadwago.pdf

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Slutrapportering to Riksbanken Jublieumsfond Project: CADWAGO - Climate change adaptation and water governance - reconciling food security, renewable energy and the provision of multiple ecosystem services. 2016. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/final-report-of-cadwago.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Slutrapportering to Riksbanken Jublieumsfond Project: CADWAGO - Climate change adaptation and water governance - reconciling food security, renewable energy and the provision of multiple ecosystem services |date=March 2016 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/final-report-of-cadwago.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2016slutrapportering, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Slutrapportering to Riksbanken Jublieumsfond Project: CADWAGO - Climate change adaptation and water governance - reconciling food security, renewable energy and the provision of multiple ecosystem services}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2016}, month = mar, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/final-report-of-cadwago.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }