Water resilience and the twin transition: Industrial approaches addressing the relationship between water, digitalisation and decarbonisation

The EU Youth Test at the EESC is being applied to this opinion. The Baltic Sea Region Youth Forum  was chosen by a group of interested youth organisations to represent all of them during the opinion-making process.

The EESC:

1. reiterates its call to revise the EU industrial strategy to explicitly include water-related issues and for water to be treated as a fundamental element of the industrial strategy;
2. calls on the EU institutions to ensure greater coherence in water policy, and to consider the water-energy nexus in water management in order to reflect industrial water needs;
3. notes that decarbonisation can shift environmental pressures to local water supply systems, and recommends developing targeted policies to address water scarcity in industrialised areas and water stress zones, promoting alternative water treatment and reuse to ensure compliance with the Water Framework Directive (WFD);
4. calls on the EU to make water a strategic priority in the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF);
5. recommends increasing political and financial support for water-efficient decarbonisation technologies e.g. via Important Projects of Common European Interest and Horizon Europe, as well as financial incentives or subsidies for industries adopting water-efficient technologies;
6. calls on industry to prioritise less energy-intensive artificial intelligence (AI) learning models and algorithms, to use renewable energy that consumes less energy and water (solar, wind) to power data centres, to set up centres in regions without risk of water shortages and to take into account the needs of other sectors of activity;
7. recommends improving water data interoperability and reliability by establishing common standards for data collection, storage and sharing, and by encouraging technology and digital companies to make water data more transparent, including sources, volumes, recycling measures and audits;
8. calls for investment in infrastructure to improve the water supply chain, interconnect Europe's river networks, and strengthen cyber security measures;
9. encourages social dialogue on access to and management of water along the water chain as well as the introduction of courses on water management, flood control, drought management and sustainable water use, especially in higher education and vocational education.