ETC BE Report 2025/1: Contributions of water saving to a climate resilient Europe

04 Jun 2025

Henk Wolters, Alexander Psomas, George Bariamis, Guido Schmidt, Teresa Geidel, Esmée Mes, Mark de Bel, Gerardo Anzaldua

The EU abstracts around 200,000 million m³ of freshwater annually. Of this, 20,000-80,000 million m³ or 10-40% of the total abstraction could be saved with effective implementation of water saving measures and incentives. According to the review conducted for this study, it is technically feasible to save 5-20 % of the currently abstracted volume in agriculture, 45-95% in electricity production, 30-50% in the manufacturing industry, and 20-50 % in the public water supply (including 10-30% in tourism). However, in practice, the theoretical water saving potential depends strongly on the local circumstances and technologies already in place. Furthermore, it may be limited, due to socio-economic factors, such as lack of funding, lack of political engagement, changing consumption patterns, rebound effects, intensity of climate change impacts, etc. The implementation of water saving measures must be accompanied by enablers, such as raising awareness among water users and the wider public, water metering, enforcement of abstraction regulations, incentive water pricing, application of the cost recovery and the polluter/user pays principles. Moreover, the achieved water savings should be used to increase environmental and socio-economic resilience to the unpredictable fluctuations of water availability resulting from climate change. Therefore, legal and governance arrangements for water saving should manage the competitive interests among different economic sectors and between economic growth and environmental protection, securing sufficient water for human and environmental welfare.

Prepared by:

Lead authors: Henk Wolters (Deltares), Alexander Psomas (BRiS), George Bariamis (BRiS), Guido Schmidt (FT), Teresa Geidel (FT), Esmée Mes (Deltares), Mark de Bel (Deltares), Gerardo Anzaldua (Ecologic)
EEA project manager: Nihat Zal (EEA)
Coordination: Claudia Neitzel (NIVA)
Language Check: Shane Hume (LESP)
Layout: Veronica Ressem (NIVA)