Adaptation through Water 2025

4Taking action: four directions for the private sector A simple, sector-agnostic framework can guide businesses, solution-providers and investors in approaching AtW. This chapter presents a two-part framework for action to accelerate AtW. It draws on the report’s analysis of water adaptation needs in the Southeast Asian market, insights from the global case studies above, and the conclusions of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water (GCEW). GCEW challenges organizations to tackle five missions to address the global water crisis: 1. Launch a new revolution in food systems. 2. Conserve and restore natural habitats critical to protect green water.23 3. Establish a circular water economy. 4. Enable a clean energy and AI-rich era with much lower water intensity. 5. Ensure that no child dies from unsafe water by 2030. GCEW targets these five missions at existing communities in six global sectors: agriculture, energy, health, industries, infrastructure, and nature and environment. The Forum’s framework for action on adaptation- through-water – presented in Figure 12 – identifies four cross-cutting opportunities that can help these existing communities collaborate across sectors and silos to implement GCEW’s five missions. These opportunities offer the greatest possibilities for social and business value creation: 1. Flood damage reduction. 2. Water optimization and circularity. 3. Financing AtW. 4. Water and nature innovation. In addition, the Forum’s framework for action aims to encourage the private sector to develop new AtW solutions, based on these four cross-cutting opportunities, that both the private and public sectors can deploy quickly and at scale across the six sectors mentioned above. Together, the GCEW’s five missions and the four cross-cutting opportunities represent a framework for action on AtW. The framework focuses on solutions that are applicable to existing sectors and ecosystems, in which an AtW approach could convene a critical mass of stakeholders. Each of the four opportunities is sector-agnostic and applies to end-users and others in their value chains, as well as to solution providers and investors. Each is of equal importance, but together they can create a multiplier effect on adaptation strategies. Adaptation through Water: Mobilizing the Private Sector for Climate Adaptation in Southeast Asia 24