Uniting for Water Resilience: Reflecting on the CEO Water Mandate’s Convenings at UNGA79

??Key Takeaways: 

  • Accelerating Water Action: The CEO Water Mandate and Water Resilience Coalition are intensifying efforts to address the growing global water crisis. 
  • Key Moment in Time: 2025 marks a key milestone towards achieving positive water impact in 100 priority basins by 2030. 
  • Leadership and Innovation: An increasing number of global leaders are committed to water resilience, focusing on advancements in AI, nature-based solutions, and collaboration. 

 

By: Jason Morrison, Head of the CEO Water Mandate and President of the Pacific Institute. ?

The 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) convened amid undeniable climate change impacts. In recent months, Brazil has faced severe floods, while major tributaries of the Amazon River have seen record-low water levels. Around the globe, soaring temperatures are intensifying the water crisis. In fact, many of the most severe consequences of climate change are fundamentally linked to water. 

In 2022, 2.2 billion still lacked safely managed drinking water. Simultaneously, the World Economic Forum’s (WEF’s) most recent Global Risks Report ranks natural resource shortages among its top five business risks for the next decade. 

Against this backdrop, the work of the CEO Water Mandate and the Water Resilience Coalition to secure a water-resilient future has never been more urgent.  

For this reason, the CEO Water Mandate, a partnership between the Pacific Institute and the United Nations Global Compact, convened business leaders from across the globe at UNGA79 in New York. Together, these leaders focused on one thing: driving action toward water resilience. 
 

Water Resilience Coalition’s CEO Circle Meeting

This marked the Water Resilience Coalition’s largest ever gathering of CEOs and CSOs to date, with an exceptional commitment from our leaders towards our 2030 ambition. Discussions focused on: 

  • Advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital technologies for advanced basin diagnostics and monitoring. 
  • Innovations in nature-based solutions and circular water management. 
  • Stakeholder collaborations to ensure equity and water security for workers and communities. 

As we approach 2025, the halfway point toward the Coalition’s 2030 goal of achieving collective positive water impact in 100 priority basins, it is clear that we must accelerate our efforts. The goals for 2025 are: 

  • Reach 75 Coalition members. 
  • Identify at least one collective action opportunity in each of the basins, have a basin champion for at least 25 basins, and establish local presence through partner organizations in twelve basins. 
  • As part of the WRC Investment Portfolio, we have identified $1.7 billion in investment opportunities with market-rate financial returns, directly aligned with our 2030 ambition. In 2025, we have the opportunity to ramp up our financial commitment and accelerate our impact with targeted investments across three key investment themes: water resilience infrastructure, nature-based solutions, and access to clean water and sanitation. 

Learn more about the Water Resilience Coalition. 
 

UN Global Compact Leaders Summit

At the Leaders Summit 2024, the CEO Water Mandate and Water Resilience Coalition again convened business leaders to focus on water action, providing a platform to share experiences in corporate water stewardship. As an outcome, the participants left with concrete steps to build water resilience and leverage available resources effectively. 
 

Full-day Corporate Water Stewardship Event

The CEO Water Mandate’s Corporate Water Stewardship event further underscored the private sector’s appetite for taking action on water. With a packed room of over 100 in-person attendees, discussions covered collective action, access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), digital technologies, and the presentation of net positive water impact guidance documents. 
 

Looking Ahead

2025 will be a pivotal year for water action, marking a critical halfway point towards the Coalition’s 2030 ambitions. We will begin the year with the CEO Circle meeting in January during the World Economic Forum, while COP30 will further solidify and expand the private sector’s commitment to water resilience and climate action. 

To learn more about joining the CEO Water Mandate and/or Water Resilience Coalition please email us at: ceowatermandate@unglobalcompact.org 

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CEO Water Mandate
The Mandate is a commitment platform for business leaders and learners to advance water stewardship. Endorsing companies commit to action across six key elements and report annually on progress. The Mandate Secretariat - a partnership between the UN Global Compact and Pacific Institute - supports the initiative’s mission and endorsing companies in many ways, including: (1) developing research, guidance, and tools that advance corporate water stewardship, (2) convening multi-stakeholder events to identify, explore, and solve key water challenges, and (3) facilitating meaningful collective action to improve conditions in at-risk river basins around the world.