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Why we need a new economics of water as a common good

Anthropogenic pressures and climate change are altering water flows worldwide. Better understanding, new economic thinking and an international governance framework are needed to stave off catastrophe.
By
  1. Johan Rockström

    1. Johan Rockström is director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (member of the Leibniz Association), Potsdam, Germany, and professor of Earth system science at the Institute of Environmental Science and Geography, University of Potsdam, Germany.

  2. Mariana Mazzucato

    1. Mariana Mazzucato is professor of the economics of innovation and public value at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, University College London, UK.

  3. Lauren Seaby Andersen

    1. Lauren Seaby Andersen is a senior scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, Germany.

  4. Simon Felix Fahrländer

    1. Simon Felix Fahrländer a scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, Germany.

  5. Dieter Gerten

    1. Dieter Gerten a working group leader at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, Germany, and is a professor of global change climatology and hydrology in the Department of Geography, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany.

Wide angle view of a large storm cloud over the Amazon river and rainforest

Destruction of the Amazon rainforest adversely affects rainfall in Brazil’s downwind neighbours. Credit: Maxime Aliaga/Nature Picture Library

Water is the lifeblood of our planet — essential for keeping humans and every plant and animal alive. It helps to circulate carbon and nutrients in the air and in soils, and regulates climate. For millennia, Earth’s water cycle has provided reliable supplies and sustained conditions conducive to human development. Yet anthropogenic pressures are now pushing the cycle out of balance, threatening to undermine the reliability of rainfall itself.

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Nature 615, 794-797 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00800-z

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Supplementary Information

  1. Supplementary box and figures

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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