Landmark report launched at the UN 2023 Water Conference in New York

The Global Commission on the Economics of Water (GCEW), co-chaired by UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) Director Professor Mariana Mazzucato, has launched a groundbreaking new report at the UN 2023 Water Conference, held from 22-24 March 2023 in New York, US, that ushers in a paradigm shift in water economics.

Professor Mazzucato and her co-chairs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (Director General of the World Trade Organization WTO), Professor Johan Rockström (Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)), and Tharman Shanmugaratnam (Senior Minister of Singapore), believe that as the Stern Review rewrote the economics of climate change and the Dasgupta Review rewrote the economics of biodiversity, the new GCEW report, Turning the Tide: A Call to Collective Action, rewrites the economics of water. It lays the bedrock for how to value, govern, and finance water in a fundamentally new way.

At the launch event on 22 March, the Commission was joined by the King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and President Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan. The governments of the Netherlands and Tajikistan served as the two national co-hosts of the UN 2023 Water Conference and expressed their full support for the ambition the Commission sets out in its report.

During the conference, the Commission brought a key message to world leaders: we will fail on climate change if we fail on water – and we will fail on virtually all of our Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To put the world back on a sustainable and just economic trajectory requires a new economics of water, one that values water as a global common good.

"We need new economic thinking to help move from reactively fixing to proactively shaping economies to become inclusive and sustainable,” said Professor Mazzucato, adding: “Moving from sectoral to mission-oriented innovation policies with a common good approach can help us put equity and justice at the centre of water partnerships and bring multiple sectors together to tackle our biggest water challenges."

These key messages took centre stage at two other official high-level events: a special event with major groups of the UN on 23 March 2023 and an interactive dialogue co-hosted by the Governments of Singapore and the US on 24 March 2023.

The co-chairs of the Commission published an op-ed in Project Syndicate ahead of the conference, outlining a 12-point plan to kickstart action in tackling the water crisis. Additionally, to complement the new report, Professor Mazzucato co-authored a paper in Nature with Professor Rockström calling for a new economics that values blue and green water in a more holistic way.

The GCEW was established in May 2022 at the initiative of the Government of the Netherlands, with the aim of re-envisioning the economics and governance of water. The Commission comprises an independent and diverse group of experts from the fields of science, economics and policymaking, and with leadership experience at community, city, national and multilateral levels.

The Commission will share its final report in 2024.

Read more on the topic

• Article | Confronting the Global Water CrisisConfronting the Global Water Crisis | Project Syndicate | Mariana Mazzucato, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Johan Rockström and Tharman Shanmugaratnam
• Interview | Global fresh water demand will outstrip supply by 40% by 2030, say experts | Guardian |  Mariana Mazzucato and Johan Rockström 
• Interview | "Keinen Tropfen mehr zu verschenken" ("Not a drop left to give away") | Die Zeit | Mariana Mazzucato