Rethinking responses to the world’s water crises

R. quentin Grafton; Safa Fanaian; James Horne; Pamela Katic; Nhat-Mai Nguyen; Claudia Ringler; Libby Robin; Julia Talbot-Jones; Sarah ann Wheeler; Paul robert Wyrwoll; Fabiola Avarado; Asit k. Biswas; Edoardo Borgomeo; Roy Brouwer; Peter Coombes; Robert Costanza; Robert Hope; Tom Kompas; Ida Kubiszewski; Ana Manero; Rita Martins; Rachael Mcdonnell; William Nikolakis; Russell Rollason; Nadeem Samnakay; Bridget r. Scanlon; Jesper Svensson; Djiby Thiam; Cecilia Tortajada; Yahua Wang; John Williams

doi:10.1038/s41893-024-01470-z

Rethinking responses to the world’s water crises

R. quentin Grafton, Safa Fanaian, James Horne, Pamela Katic, Nhat-Mai Nguyen, Claudia Ringler, Libby Robin, Julia Talbot-Jones, Sarah ann Wheeler, Paul robert Wyrwoll, Fabiola Avarado, Asit k. Biswas, Edoardo Borgomeo, Roy Brouwer, Peter Coombes, Robert Costanza, Robert Hope, Tom Kompas, Ida Kubiszewski, Ana ManeroRita Martins, Rachael Mcdonnell, William Nikolakis, Russell Rollason, Nadeem Samnakay, Bridget r. Scanlon, Jesper Svensson, Djiby Thiam, Cecilia Tortajada, Yahua Wang, John Williams

Environmental Economics

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

The world faces multiple water crises, including overextraction, flooding, ecosystem degradation and inequitable safe water access. Insufficient funding and ineffective implementation impede progress in water access, while, in part, a misdiagnosis of the causes has prioritized some responses over others (for example, hard over soft infrastructure). We reframe the responses to mitigating the world’s water crises using a ‘beyond growth’ framing and compare it to mainstream thinking. Beyond growth is systems thinking that prioritizes the most disadvantaged. It seeks to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation by overcoming policy capture and inertia and by fostering place-based and justice-principled institutional changes.

Original language	English
Article number	e2015177118
Pages (from-to)	11-21
Number of pages	11
Journal	Nature Sustainability
Volume	8
Issue number	1
Early online date	9 Dec 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01470-z
Publication status	Published - Jan 2025

Funding

This research was, in part, supported by the Hilda John Endowment of the Australian National University, the Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship Grant No. FL190100164 ‘Water Justice: Indigenous Water Valuation and Resilient Decision-Making’ and the REACH programme, funded by UK Aid from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office for the benefit of developing countries (programme code no. 201880).

Funders	Funder number
Australian National University
Hilda John Endowment
Australian Research Council	201880, FL190100164

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Grafton, R. Q., Fanaian, S., Horne, J., Katic, P., Nguyen, N.-M., Ringler, C., Robin, L., Talbot-Jones, J., Wheeler, S. A., Wyrwoll, P. R., Avarado, F., Biswas, A. K., Borgomeo, E., Brouwer, R., Coombes, P., Costanza, R., Hope, R., Kompas, T., Kubiszewski, I., ... Williams, J. (2025). Rethinking responses to the world’s water crises. Nature Sustainability, 8(1), 11-21. Article e2015177118. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01470-z

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abstract = "The world faces multiple water crises, including overextraction, flooding, ecosystem degradation and inequitable safe water access. Insufficient funding and ineffective implementation impede progress in water access, while, in part, a misdiagnosis of the causes has prioritized some responses over others (for example, hard over soft infrastructure). We reframe the responses to mitigating the world{\textquoteright}s water crises using a {\textquoteleft}beyond growth{\textquoteright} framing and compare it to mainstream thinking. Beyond growth is systems thinking that prioritizes the most disadvantaged. It seeks to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation by overcoming policy capture and inertia and by fostering place-based and justice-principled institutional changes.",

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Grafton, RQ, Fanaian, S, Horne, J, Katic, P, Nguyen, N-M, Ringler, C, Robin, L, Talbot-Jones, J, Wheeler, SA, Wyrwoll, PR, Avarado, F, Biswas, AK, Borgomeo, E, Brouwer, R, Coombes, P, Costanza, R, Hope, R, Kompas, T, Kubiszewski, I, Manero, A, Martins, R, Mcdonnell, R, Nikolakis, W, Rollason, R, Samnakay, N, Scanlon, BR, Svensson, J, Thiam, D, Tortajada, C, Wang, Y & Williams, J 2025, 'Rethinking responses to the world’s water crises', Nature Sustainability, vol. 8, no. 1, e2015177118, pp. 11-21. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01470-z

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Rethinking responses to the world’s water crises

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