Ecology

Agriculture is the single largest industrial sector when it comes to consuming water: 72 percent of the world’s freshwater consumption is used to produce food. Ensuring a secure supply despite the threats posed by the changing climate will take political will.

Access to clean water is a human right. But with the climate crisis and population growth, water is becoming an ever-scarcer resource – over which different groups may compete fiercely. International agreements can help promote cooperation rather than conflict.

Selling public water supply systems to private companies was supposed to make management more efficient, and lower prices. But experience has often shown the opposite. Many municipalities and civil society initiatives now want to bring water back into the public domain.

Plastic waste, industrial effluent, chemicals: scarcely a single body of water is safe. They threaten ecosystems, biodiversity, and human health. The solution to the wave of pollutants? A circular economy that conserves resources.

From farms to factories, from smartphones to kitchen taps, global water consumption and demand are rising, driven by agriculture and industry. At the same time, reserves are shrinking, worsened by the climate crisis, overuse, and unequal access. Efficient, fair, and sustainable management is becoming a critical global priority.

Healthy ecosystems purify water and protect against floods and droughts. However, the climate crisis is disrupting natural cycles and threatening habitats around the world. Protecting peatlands, wetlands, and coastal areas is not only an ecological priority but also a social imperative.

Water is vital for life on Earth. But overuse, pollution, and the climate crisis are endangering global water reserves, with far-reaching consequences for ecosystems and humans. To overcome crises, we must manage water sustainably.

Rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere warm the oceans, melt icecaps and make extreme weather such as droughts and floods more frequent. Those most severely affected are least able to protect themselves.

Defence topped the October EUCO agenda. Read our Böll EU Newsletter 10/2025 for analysis on Europe’s evolving defence landscape, the political crisis in France, Czech elections, local housing solutions and our upcoming events.

Levies, charges, and taxes make electricity expensive – and hinder the switch to the climate-friendly, electricity-based alternatives that we urgently need. Yet many companies and consumers have long been ready to make the change. The technology is already available, often from German manufacturers, who have been waiting for years for a market breakthrough. Instead, Katherina Reiche's reckless wrong-way drive continues unabated.