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E-book The Roadmap to a Low-Carbon Urban Water Utility : An international guide to the WaCCliM approach
he transition to low-carbon urban water utilities is an innovative idea, only currently embraced by a few forward-thinking utilities. This roadmap is directed at urban water utility managers in charge of planning future actions, as well as at the stakeholders who will support the utility action plans. Because only a few ‘early adopter’ utilities have embarked on a low-carbon transition, this roadmap intends to support other utilities in understanding and championing the need for contributing to a carbon-neutral future, and to guide them through a process of change. This roadmap can be applied to all utilities worldwide, but was specifically developed with utilities in emerging economies in mind because service performance and data management challenges are often prominent in their operations and future planning. Climate change has prompted action around the world to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as evidenced by the Paris Agreement, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, as well as local, regional and national initiatives aimed at reducing emissions across all sectors. The mind-set shift in the urban water sector towards carbon neutrality has recently started in some developed nations, initiating with GHG emission reduction policies and implementation actions. Several water utilities worldwide, such as in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Melbourne and New York, are already leading the sector with specific goals for GHG reduction or carbon neutrality, to be achieved by approaches including energy efficiency, renewable energy use, water reuse, biogas valorisation and operational optimisation that also often results in reducing energy consumption and operational costs. However, this mind-set is still considered innovative, and many utilities that can have a big impact on a global scale typically have not adopted that path yet. Utilities in emerging economies, struggling with service levels and low wastewater treatment coverage, can have a substantial impact and were therefore targeted by the Water and Wastewater Companies for Climate Mitigation (WaCCliM) project 1 (see Annex I) to make the transition to a low-carbon urban water sector more impactful globally. The first part of the roadmap is intended to support utility managers in their own mind-set change and secondly in making the case to their stakeholders on why this transition is critical. Change can only happen if individuals are convinced of its necessity and become champions who lead by example. Institutions also support the change, but any policy implementation relies on individuals applying it and turning it into actions.
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