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IWA Search Theme: Climate Change

Factsheet-ECAM 3.0 Assessing the Carbon Footprint of Urban Water Utilities-EN

The “Energy Performance and Carbon Emissions Assessment and Monitoring Tool” (ECAM) offers unique capabilities for assessing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy consumption of water and sanitation systems. Gain greater insights by identifying areas to reduce GHG emissions, increase energy savings and improve overall efficiencies to reduce costs.

WaCCliM – Water and Wastewater Companies for Climate Mitigation (Project Video)

Water and wastewater companies are typically energy intensive. This indicates excellent opportunities for improving energy efficiency and greatly reducing greenhouse gas emissions through more energy-efficient systems, as well as recovering energy, nutrients and other materials from wastewater.

The ‘Water and Wastewater Companies for Climate Mitigation’ (WaCCliM) project shows how the urban water sector can reduce its own greenhouse gas emissions while preparing for climate change. WaCCliM engages with the international water and climate community, with national governments and with water and wastewater utilities as well as their associations in Jordan, Mexico and Peru. Together with its national and local partners, WaCCliM is improving the carbon balance of utilities in these countries and beyond. At the same time, the project aims to ensure that utilities increase their climate resilience, reduce their operational costs, and maintain, improve and adapt their services.

Fact Sheet | Strengthening the Water-Energy-Climate Nexus for Green Recovery

Continuous and financially sustainable water and sanitation services are the backbone of resilient economies, particularly during challenging times. In addition to that, the urban water sector can lead the transition towards green recovery through targeted investments, embarking on a pathway towards decarbonization and environmental sustainability. Besides securing continuous drinking water and sanitation for hygiene measures and industrial production, an investment initiative is needed to tap the full potential of combining water, energy and climate action. Implementing low carbon energy projects in the urban water and sanitation sector improves utilities services and financial sustainability, creates green jobs and local business opportunities, protects the climate and environment and increases resilience to face future financial, health and climate crises.

Methodology for establishing Baseline Scenarios

This methodology outlines the path for establishing business-as-usual (BAU) emission scenarios water and wastewater utilities could exhibit in the mid-term if the current management and practices were to continue in four easy steps. The approach is created on the basis of the “Energy Performance and Carbon Emissions Assessment and Monitoring” (ECAM) tool. Based on the projected future values of key parameters, the variables that are necessary to be inputted into ECAM – the ECAM inputs – for the computation of GHG emissions can be quantified for a certain point of time. This step is facilitated by the “Tool of Projecting ECAM Inputs for GHG Emissions as BAU Scenarios (PEIGE)” in Excel format, which automatically calculates future values once users have entered the current ECAM input values and BAU trends. BAU scenarios can help to understand the impacts of adopting a low carbon policy and can serve as a technical component to inform/decide strategic planning on climate change, emissions mitigation goal setting and long-term climate policy design.

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