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The report examines the impact of the Turkey-North Cyprus water pipeline, an innovative project pumping water from the Taurus Mountains to North Cyprus, within the context of increasing water scarcity in the Eastern Mediterranean. It highlights a systemic failure in water governance in North Cyprus, characterized by short-term political tactics, lack of coordination, and unsustainable groundwater extraction leading to salinisation. While the pipeline provides a significant new resource, the authors argue that without comprehensive reform—including the creation of an independent regulatory board, better data collection, and bi-communal cooperation—the project may not ensure long-term climate resilience. The report suggests adopting OECD principles of water governance to improve effectiveness, efficiency, and trust.

The text examines the crisis of freshwater depletion and proposes 'natural capitalism' through water efficiency. It details technological and behavioral shifts in agriculture (drip irrigation), landscaping (xeriscaping), and building systems (waterless toilets, graywater recovery), while advocating for decentralized biological wastewater treatment like 'Living Machines'.

The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) provides a suite of participatory tools and analytical frameworks to improve water resource management in Latin America, with a focus on Colombia. Key examples include the use of 'Serious Games' to help stakeholders understand and plan Watershed Management and Ordering Plans (POMCA) in Campoalegre, and the application of a multidimensional poverty analysis to evaluate water access and human security. The document also highlights the Regional Water Assessment (ERA) in Colombia and advocates for the role of community journalists in raising awareness about water care and sanitation needs.

The document discusses the conceptual framework for identifying 'climate vulnerability hotspots'—areas where natural systems and human populations are highly susceptible to climate risks. It emphasizes that vulnerability is not solely a product of poverty, as resource-dependent societies often possess established coping strategies. The author advocates for an integrated analysis combining knowledge of climate impacts, threat complexes, and the spatial distribution of vulnerability. Key findings suggest that vulnerability is unevenly distributed across socio-economic groups and that future vulnerability may not align with present-day patterns. The paper concludes by outlining a research agenda that calls for the integration of local knowledge, participatory techniques with GIS, and an international dialogue to establish best practices for hotspot identification.

The document outlines research needs for spring management in Nepal's Midhills across three domains: improving rainfall data through remote sensing and citizen science; understanding hydrogeology, including recharge mechanisms and climate change impacts; and addressing socio-economic issues such as equitable access and SDG interactions.

The document details a methodology for assessing 'embedded' water risk in global trade by combining the IOTA hybrid MRIO model with water stress data from the World Resources Institute's Aqueduct database. It explains how production of agricultural commodities is linked to final consumers and how country-level water risk is calculated using two distinct indicators: aggregate national water stress and the proportion of land area under stress. The methodology is illustrated through examples of maize and rice consumption, showing that regions like south and central Asia face high consumption-based water risk. Future improvements aim to increase spatial resolution to the sub-country level and expand the range of risk indicators to include groundwater scarcity and flood likelihood.

Thailand is promoting a bioeconomy to escape the middle-income trap and reduce social inequality, focusing heavily on the industrial processing of sugarcane and cassava into high-value products and biofuels. While integrated into national strategies like Thailand 4.0 and the 20-year National Strategy, the transition faces significant hurdles, including land and water scarcity, low wages for sugarcane workers, and environmental pollution from field burning.

This policy brief by the Stockholm Environment Institute describes the application of an integrated water-energy-food-ecosystems (WEFE) nexus modeling approach (LEAP-WEAP-MACRO) to the Syr Darya River Basin. It argues that integrated modeling provides more realistic results than siloed approaches and demonstrates that international cooperation among Central Asian countries can increase water availability, boost agricultural production, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to business-as-usual scenarios.

The paper proposes a green-blue water approach to watershed management, emphasizing that managing soil moisture (green water) can increase water productivity and reduce downstream scarcity. It examines the hydrological impacts of land-use changes, such as deforestation and afforestation, and discusses the use of Payments for Environmental Services (PES) to incentivize sustainable upland management. Case studies from the Jordan and Tana River basins illustrate the challenges of transboundary cooperation and the potential for 'soft-path' interventions over large-scale infrastructure.

The document argues that multi-layered home gardens incorporating trees, shrubs, and crops enhance food security, nutrition, and climate resilience. It identifies key barriers to their development, such as insecure land tenure and water scarcity, and suggests that integrating home gardens into climate finance mechanisms like REDD+ could provide new opportunities for expansion.

The document examines water scarcity in the Mekong Region, highlighting a governance structure often dominated by top-down authority and a lack of enforceable water allocation rights. It notes that urban and industrial needs are typically prioritized over agriculture, leaving vulnerable groups—particularly women and the rural poor—at higher risk. The briefing also discusses the influence of international financial institutions and political motivations on irrigation infrastructure and the projected impacts of climate change, including increased temperature and seasonal rainfall uncertainty, which threaten agricultural productivity and food security.

The document analyzes how the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated structural inequalities in Latin America, specifically affecting women's labor participation and health, the vulnerability of indigenous populations regarding food security and healthcare, and the slow integration of green jobs into economic recovery plans. It provides detailed case studies for Mexico, Chile, and Colombia, highlighting gaps in public spending and the need for intersectional policies, improved data collection, and a transition toward a sustainable, low-carbon economy that ensures decent work and social justice.

The document argues that the costs of failing to reduce carbon emissions in the United States are prohibitive, citing projected damages to coastal infrastructure, public health, water resources, agriculture, transportation, and energy systems. It highlights that under high-emissions scenarios, the annual economic impact could reach 1.9 percent of GDP by 2100. Specific regional risks include severe sea-level rise in Florida and the Northeast, extreme heat waves in Midwestern cities, water scarcity in the Southwest, and increased wildfire frequency in the West Coast and Rocky Mountain regions. The document advocates for a reduction of carbon emissions by at least 80 percent from 2005 levels by 2050 to avoid the worst consequences.

The Southwest is projected to warm by 4-6°F under lower-emissions and 7-10°F under higher-emissions scenarios by the end of the century. The region faces severe water scarcity, expanding deserts, and reduced runoff, particularly in the Colorado River system. Public health risks include increased heat-related deaths in Los Angeles and worsening air quality. Economic threats include reduced yields for California specialty crops, diminished ski resort profitability due to snowpack loss, and reduced aircraft freight capacity at high-altitude airports like Phoenix and Denver. Biodiversity is critically threatened, especially in the Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands, while mountain ecosystems face range reductions and reproductive failures in wildflowers due to earlier snowmelt and spring frosts.

The report establishes a risk assessment framework for the commercial real estate sector in South and Southeast Asia, focusing on the financial impacts of energy insecurity, water scarcity, and climate change. It highlights that while these risks are increasing due to infrastructure limitations and physical vulnerability, green building investments can mitigate these risks and achieve net positive returns within three years. The analysis specifically examines commercial office buildings in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, with a primary focus on India.

The report identifies increased agricultural input prices and higher processing costs as the most financially material impacts of climate change and water scarcity on the food and beverage (F&B) sector in South and Southeast Asia. These risks affect all examined F&B subsectors, including aquaculture, beverages, confectionary, dairy/poultry, edible oils, starches, and sugar. Financial risks are driven by decreased crop and animal yields, operational disruptions to manufacturing plants, and increased costs for water filtration and food safety. Additionally, competition for water resources creates reputational risks for food processors. The analysis specifically targets publicly listed domestic companies in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam within a sector valued at USD 40 billion.

The report highlights the growing vulnerability of the power sector in South and Southeast Asia to water-related risks, noting that 74 GW of existing and planned capacity for major power companies is located in water-scarce or stressed areas. It argues that while regulatory protections have historically shielded shareholders from the financial impact of water-related outages, these protections may become unsustainable as climate change and demographic pressures intensify water shortages. The document also notes a trade-off between water mitigation and carbon emissions, as technologies like dry cooling reduce water dependency but increase carbon emissions per unit of power output.

The document identifies six critical ecosystem challenges—water scarcity, climate change, habitat change, biodiversity loss and invasive species, overexploitation of oceans, and nutrient overloading—that threaten the integrity of ecosystems and the services they provide to businesses. It references the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), which found that human activity has altered ecosystems faster and more extensively than ever before in the last 50 years and that the majority of the 24 assessed ecosystem services are degraded. The MA categorizes these services into provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services.

The research quantifies the financial risks that water shortages pose to India's thermal power sector, finding that generation outages can significantly reduce earnings, particularly for plants using once-through cooling technologies.

The document outlines the difficulties financial institutions face when assessing the materiality of environmental trends in South and Southeast Asia, specifically regarding data availability, contextual analysis, and predictability.