Client: Welsh Water – DWR CYMRU
EJWP1: December – March 2020
Participants: Rhys Hellin, Ioana Dobrescu, Ingrid Keupers and Hedviga Horvathova
Project description
The water industry is responsible for a number of greenhouse gas emissions. It uses a significant amount of energy, the wastes give off a variety of emissions and its management of water systems affects land, rivers and reservoirs. How can the Dwr Cymru Welsh Water and the European water sector make use of shared knowledge and best practices to shape their future strategies to meet the carbon reduction targets while protecting and enhancing the water environment.
Approach
The project consisted of desktop research on three aspects of carbon emissions in the water sector: embodied carbon, carbon found in the treatment process of water, and investigating existing methods for internal carbon pricing that could be applied to the water sector.
Results
The team came up with recommendations for applying two of the most common carbon pricing methods: carbon fee and shadow pricing and provided applied examples for cases within Welsh Water, demonstrating the validity of the models for the water sector. The results included also a listing of external case studies from other European countries.
Follow-up
Welsh Water is assessing the results for implementation within the organization and for further knowledge exchange with other water sector organizations in the UK and Europe.
