WATER / WASTEWATER

摘要

"Water UK and STOWA [the Foundation for Applied Water Research for the Dutch Water Authorities] are driving carbon reduction across the global water industry," states Dr Mikkel Holmen Andersen, CTO at Unisense, Denmark, "not the UN."But how will the water industry achieve net zero by 2030? To put this into perspective, in the UK, the water industry uses 2% of national energy consumption and yet produces a massive one third of total national Greenhouse Gases (GHG) from its operations. The good news is that water companies have come together to tackle these emissions. Firstly, to produce a baseline of their GHG emissions using the same tool, then forecast a business-as-usual trajectory compared with the net zero option, to create a gap analysis to plan actions and measures. Water company net zero plans were published in July 2021. They have all committed to using the 'emission reduction hierarchy' which prioritises emission reduction over using renewables and lastly using carbon offsetting where needed to achieve net zero (Box 1). The UK water regulator, OFWAT, requires mandatory standardised reporting of operational carbon by 2022, and capital (embedded) carbon by 2023 by water companies.