The drought crack opens in the government
“The appointment of a water commissioner is being evaluated”. Word of the minister of the environment, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin. However, not even 24 hours pass before the Deputy Minister for the Environment and Energy Security, Vannia Gava, he replies: such a thing “would be the failure of politics”. Words that mark the distance between Forza Italia and Lega on a topic of utmost importance: the drought emergency. And they arrive within a few hours of the first technical table on the water crisis chaired by the premier Giorgia Meloni. A meeting where you will have to take into account that in agriculture, due to drought, there have been increases of about 40% with effects on the prices of vegetables and legumes and consequently on the Italian family budget.
The situation is critical
According to the latest data from the European Commission, 38% of the population has suffered the negative effects of drought. 29% of the surface of the Old Continent suffers from a shortage of water which, in total, it costs between 2 and 9 billion euros each year. “In Europe, most of the losses caused by drought (about 9 billion euros a year) affect agriculture, the energy sector and the public water network” reads the paper “The new EU strategy for adapting to changes climate change” of the European Commission of 2021.
“The extreme drought in Western and Central Europe in the years 2018, 2019 and 2020 caused massive damage. In 2018 alone, damage to agriculture amounted to around 2 billion euros in France1.4 billion in the Netherlands and 770 million in Germany” the document clarifies.
“With a global temperature increase of 3 degrees Celsius periods of drought would be twice as frequent and the absolute value of annual losses in Europe attributable to this phenomenon would increase to 40 billion euros a year, having a greater impact on the Mediterranean and Atlantic regions” the text specifies. Hence the entire European strategy that has declared war on emissions. Including cars and green houses.
The picture is also worrying in our country
According to reports from the‘National Association of Basin Consortia (Anbi) for at least three and a half million Italians tap water may no longer be taken for granted. For the Cnr then between 6 and 15% of the Italian population lives in regions exposed to drought risk. “The Anbi Observatory on water resources records the worsening of a situation on a weekly basis, which appears irreparably compromised, even in the face of forthcoming and in any case hoped for rainfall” reports the association.
“The absence of rain in February once again makes us glimpse the specter of drought also along the Tyrrhenian areas of central Italy. The mild temperatures of the current month mean that the already scarce snowpack in the Alpine regions is thinning further”. Hence the government’s decision to create a table to imagine a new strategy for the country.
There is no shortage of innovative projects
“Eight billion people on the planet: 2 billion worldwide continue to suffer from poor access to water and an estimated 854 million people worldwide are undernourished with spiraling higher food prices pushing 100 more millions in poverty and hunger,” he explains Francesco De Leo Kaufmannnumber one in the Kaufman & Partners. Meanwhile, 40% of the food produced on the planet goes directly to waste in landfills producing methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more harmful than CO2.
“As Kaufmann & Partners we are focused on investing in disruptive innovation: we are engaged with aerobic technologies to push the envelope of innovation, accelerating the pace of change on how to meet the challenge of food waste on a global scale” he continues. But what exactly is it about? “Thanks to the inoculants developed by theEnvironmental and Life Sciences Laboratory dell’Università di Birmingham we can transform food waste into purified drinking water, collecting data with an unprecedented level of granularity, to enable category-by-category analysis of the sources and drivers of food waste,” he adds. It is a first step that allows water to be recovered from waste.
Multinationals are also in the running on the issue
And Coca Cola a Nestle passing through the big Europeans such as the French Suezalso partner of That. But the easiest way to bet on water stocks is through the Etf. Among the best performers for year-to-date returns are L&G Clean Water UCITS ETF, Lyxor World Water and iShares Global Water. In 2022 they recorded excellent performances and then retraced last year. With 2023 the rally started. Also due to drought.