Meet the Water-Energy Nexus

We are thrilled to share our latest publication, an informative infographic highlighting the Water-Energy Nexus. In today’s climate and energy crisis, understanding the water-energy nexus is crucial for driving substantial savings in both resources while reducing emissions and enhancing European industry competitiveness.

Meet the Water-Energy Nexus infographic, developed by The European Alliance to Save Energy with the support of our members. 

Understanding the interdependent relationship between water and energy is crucial as we strive for sustainability and to combat the challenges of climate change. In these times of multiple crises, Europe is currently facing both energy and water crises. It is imperative that we join forces to address these challenges collectively. Recognizing the significance of the water-energy nexus, it is crucial for Europe to take decisive action and prioritize these issues without delay.

The infographic highlights:

– the connection between water consumption and produce energy

– the energy used to abstract and treat water

– the interlink between energy and water in sectors such as buildings and industry

This visual is a great tool to raise awareness about the water-energy nexus in relation to upcoming key moments of the ordinary legislative procedure related to:

Industrial Emissions Directive (IED)
Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD)
Nature Restoration Law (NRL)

View the full infographic here

View section 1 in detail
View section 2 in detail
View section 3 in detail

 

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Saving Water and Energy By Restoring Nature In Urban Areas: Statement on Nature Restoration Law

European Alliance to Save Energy (EU-ASE) welcomes the European Commission’s proposal for a Nature Restoration Law and supports the ambition presented by the ENVI rapporteur in the European Parliament to increase the restoration objective and set higher targets for the restoration of terrestrial, coastal, freshwater, marine, and urban ecosystems.

Nature restoration, ecosystem degradation, and biodiversity loss are critical issues for the European Union due to their impact on the environment, human health, and the economy. It poses a significant challenge to the EU`s sustainability goals, promotion of green growth, and achievement of a climate-neutral society.

The proposal includes some provisions that can promote the realisation of the water-energy nexus i.e. the ability to simultaneously save water and energy.

EU-ASE supports Article 6 on the restoration of urban ecosystems. We also support Article 11 which proposes the introduction of National Restoration Plans.

Green urban infrastructure and permeable surfaces in cities, such as urban parks, green roofs, and green walls, can contribute to saving energy and restoring nature in cities while supporting biodiversity, improving air and water quality, and providing recreational opportunities for urban dwellers, especially in densely populated areas.

The Nature Restoration Law has a significant importance in achieving Union climate goals and should be considered as another element of the package of legislation aiming to promote the deployment of energy efficiency technologies.

Read our full statement on Nature Restoration Law here.

 

About us
The European Alliance to Save Energy (EU-ASE) is a cross-sectoral, business-led organisation that ensures that the voice of energy efficiency is heard across Europe. EU-ASE members have operations across the 27 Member States of the European Union, employ over 340.000 people in Europe and have an aggregated annual turnover of €115 billion.

 

 

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Doing more with less: Increase energy efficiency & reduce carbon intensity of wastewater treatment plants

The European Alliance to Save Energy (EU-ASE) welcomes the European Commission’s proposal for a recast of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD). This document gathers our inputs to the co-legislators that are due to negotiate and finalise the draft proposal in the next months.

The UWWTD played a substantial role in improving water quality and tackling high pollution levels in water bodies throughout decades. In 2021, we called for an update of the over 30 years old UWWTD because we were convinced it could be improved to better address some of today’s most pressing challenges such climate change, resource scarcity, increased energy prices and population growth.

The recast proposal of the European Commission is the right step towards a more comprehensive, efficient and sustainable wastewater treatment. Nonetheless, we see room for improvement to further enhance energy efficiency, the recovery and use of excess heat, digitalisation, data analytics and water reuse.

Monica Frassoni, President of EU-ASE states: “In the current water and energy crisis, we must take all the possible actions to drive substantial water and energy savings, reduce emissions and increase the competitiveness of European industry. The revision of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive is key in this perspective. We call policymakers to apply the energy efficiency first principle. We have the technologies to reduce waste water treatment plants’ energy consumption, recover and use excess heat, reuse water and gradually make water treatment plants energy positive.”

Read the full paper here.

 

 

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A legislative framework supportive of the water-energy nexus: exploiting synergies between water & energy savings, 22 Sept 2022

On 22 September 2022, 12:00 – 13:30pm (CET) as part of the Extended Programme of European Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW), the European Alliance to Save Energy (EU-ASE) hosted an online conference on the water-energy nexus to discuss how to design the best policy framework across the EED, UWWTD and IED.

The strong interdependencies that exist between energy and water are no longer to be demonstrated. Abstracting, distributing, heating, cooling or treating water requires huge amounts of energy while water is also used heavily in energy production and across many industrial processes.

The ongoing policy developments to unleash the potential of the water-energy nexus show progress is in the making but requires strong alignment between energy and water legislations. The panel will discuss how to ensure coherence across the EED, UWWTD and IED.

Moderator:

  • Agnese Danelon, Director, Government Relations Europe, Ecolab

Speakers:

  • Vania Paccagnan, Senior Global Policy Manager, Water at CDP Europe
  • Veronica Manfredi, DG ENVI, European Commission
  • AbdelKader Meroufel, WE Water Distribution infrastructure & Energy WG leader, Water Europe
  • Tania Pentcheva, Senior Government and Industry Relations, Xylem
  • Monica Frassoni, President, European Alliance to Save Energy

Watch the full session here

View full agenda here

 

 

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EU-ASE response to the Inception Impact Assessment on the Revision of the UWWTD

The European Alliance to Save Energy (EU-ASE) welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback to the European Commission’s publication of an inception impact assessment on the revision of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD).

While the Directive has played a substantial role in improving the quality of European water resources and reducing pollution levels in water bodies, we believe that Europe remains some way from full compliance with collection and treatment requirements and has made little progress with water reuse.

We believe the 29-year-old Directive should be updated to better address these critical issues and today’s challenges including climate change, resource scarcity, increased energy consumption and population growth.

Based on this, EU-ASE would like to highlight the following recommendations to support the Commission in its ongoing work on the UWWTD revision.

1. Digitalisation as a key opportunity.

2. Make use of data transparency and advanced data analytics for a knowledge based
approach.

3. Preserving natural water resources with smart water management.

4. Better legal framework for urban runoff and storm water management.

5. Carbon neutral waste water management.

6. Circular economy for water.

7. Supporting investments. 

Download the full response

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