Session Outcome Report: Stockholm World Water Week 2025, NoWNET—Cross-Sector Partnerships for Water Resilience

Date: 2025-10-16

Accelerating Climate Action

Date：28 August 2025 9:00-10:30 (CEST)
The recording is available via YouTube:

Session Overview

Ms. Yumiko Asayama (NoWNET Secretariat / Japan Water Forum) coordinated the session and delivered the opening remarks for “Accelerating Climate Action: Cross-Sector Partnerships for Water Resilience.” She introduced the Northern Water Network (NoWNET) as a collaborative platform linking European and Asian partners to advance sustainable water solutions and climate resilience. In 2025, NoWNET’s focus is on the EU Water Resilience Strategy, which aligns closely with priorities in Japan and the Republic of Korea on restoring the water cycle and strengthening water governance. The session highlighted perspectives from Europe (the Netherlands, Denmark, Portugal), Japan, and Korea, emphasizing policy dialogue, innovation, and cross-sector partnerships as key pathways to accelerate climate action and build resilient, inclusive water futures.

Keynote Presentation: EU Water Resilience Strategy

Mr. Andrea Rubini, Director of Operations at Water Europe, presented an overview of the EU Water Resilience Strategy and its significance for member states. He introduced Water Europe as a multi-stakeholder platform established by the European Commission to promote water research, innovation, and technology, serving as the recognized voice for water-related innovation across Europe.

The EU Water Resilience Strategy aims to position Europe as a global leader in sustainable water management through three core objectives:

・Restoring and protecting the water cycle;
・Building a water-smart economy and society; and
・Ensuring equitable access to clean and affordable water and sanitation.

Key action areas include strengthening water security, ensuring water as a right, and promoting sustainability through innovation, digital transformation, and new governance and financing models. Flagship measures involve improving implementation of the Water Framework Directive, reducing water abstraction by 10% by 2033, eliminating PFAS pollution, and supporting the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive.

Mr. Rubini underscored the link between water, peace, and sustainability, emphasizing that water and climate crises are interconnected. He highlighted opportunities for financing through mechanisms such as the EIB, Cohesion Policy, Horizon Europe, and the EU Global Gateway, which aims to extend water and sanitation access to 70 million people.

He concluded by calling for collective action and strengthened partnerships to build a water-smart and resilient Europe, in line with the spirit of SDG 17, which emphasizes the importance of collaboration.

Feedback from non-EU countries: Japan and Korea

Mr. Shin Nemoto, Director of the International Affairs Office, Water and Disaster Management Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT, Japan), highlighted Japan’s experience in advancing cross-sector partnerships for water resilience through integrated river basin management. Under Japan’s River Act, Class A rivers are managed nationally, while Class B rivers are managed by prefectures, ensuring coordinated flood control, water use, and environmental protection. In response to the increasing frequency of floods and droughts driven by climate change, Japan has updated its river master plans to promote comprehensive, multi-layered disaster management that involves all stakeholders. The country is now moving toward basin-wide integrated water management, aiming for overall optimization across flood control, water utilization, and ecosystem conservation. Efforts such as integrated dam operations, multi-purpose retarding basins, and energy-efficient water use illustrate Japan’s shift from sectoral to collaborative basin governance. Japan’s experiences—built through continuous trial and error—offer valuable insights for developing nations seeking to achieve water resilience and integrated management.

Dr. Eun Namkung, Vice President of the Korea Water Forum, highlighted Korea’s integrated approach to water resilience and climate action, emphasizing progress in governance, efficiency, digitalization, and climate adaptation. A landmark reform in 2018 unified water quantity and quality management under a single framework, leading to the development of the National Water Management Master Plan (2020–2030), which incorporates strategies for climate adaptation, carbon neutrality, and sustainable growth. Key initiatives include improving water and energy efficiency, promoting alternative water resources such as desalination and reuse, expanding the use of renewable energy (including floating solar), and modernizing water infrastructure to withstand extreme events. Korea is also advancing digitalization and AI-based flood management.

Feedback from the representatives of countries in Europe

Mr. Rick Elmendorp, Director & Chair of the Netherlands Water Partnership, highlighted that the EU Water Resilience Strategy offers opportunities to connect water management with climate adaptation, spatial planning, and nature-based solutions, while enabling cross-country learning. He emphasized the importance of leveraging experiences from countries such as Korea and Japan to identify best practices and lessons learned. He also stressed the importance of cross-sector collaboration, including agriculture, energy, and industry, as well as local governments and communities responsible for on-the-ground implementation. He highlighted the need for a clear financial pathway to ensure plans translate into action and stressed the importance of defining resilience, supported by measurable indicators and monitoring frameworks applicable to all Member States. Finally, he recommended mapping gaps in data, finance, governance, and capacity, starting with small-scale pilots, and sharing results for scaling and replication, while recognizing the necessity of transboundary cooperation in managing water systems across borders.

Mr. João Simão Pires, Executive Director of the Portuguese Water Partnership (PWP), welcomed the adoption of the EU Water Resilience Strategy as a positive development, noting that water was previously often addressed indirectly across multiple pillars—such as climate action and the circular economy—leading to a dilution of focus. By bringing all water-related initiatives under a single umbrella, the strategy re-establishes water as a central, actionable concept, aligning program funding, investment, cohesion funds, and research and development agendas. However, he highlighted three areas where further detail is needed for operational implementation:

・Competitiveness of the EU water industry: There is interest in understanding how the strategy will promote European water enterprises both domestically and internationally.
・Cross-sector collaboration and nature credits: The strategy references the adoption of a roadmap for nature credits, but lacks clarity on its operationalization, including potential markets for volumetric water benefits, which major technology companies are exploring to achieve water-positive operations.
・Water resilience R&D: The strategy mentions a research and development agenda, but it remains unclear how this differs from existing efforts. The absence of references to water-oriented living labs was noted as an area for potential inclusion in future implementation guidance.

Overall, although still in the early stages, he emphasized an optimistic outlook and expressed eagerness to see further operational details and next steps.

Mr. Jesper Goodley Dannisøe, Secretary General of the Danish Water Forum, introduced Denmark’s perspective on water resilience, noting the country’s geographical uniqueness, with limited cross-border water connections, except for a small river that flows to Germany. This situation requires Denmark to manage water challenges independently and take responsibility for outcomes. He expressed full support for the points raised by previous speakers, emphasizing that the EU Water Resilience Strategy presents multiple areas to address. However, they highlighted the importance of focusing on “low-hanging fruits”—leveraging existing knowledge, tools, and cooperative frameworks—rather than developing new monitoring systems or technologies from scratch. Denmark has observed a rising water demand from both consumers and industry, despite sufficient precipitation, underscoring the need for a resilient and forward-looking water strategy that aligns with the EU. He encouraged cross-organizational collaboration among entities such as IT, Water Europe, and the European Water Association to share technologies and policies, avoiding duplication and accelerating implementation. Denmark expressed a strong willingness to cooperate rapidly and act as a hub for facilitating practical solutions and knowledge exchange.

Response from Water Europe

Mr. Rubini expressed complete agreement with previous contributions, noting that collaboration among stakeholders is already in place. He highlighted the significance of the EU’s recognition of water in the Commissioner’s portfolio and the successful development of a Water Resilience Strategy, marking a first for Europe. He emphasized the need to translate strategy into action through a clear implementation plan, developed in full partnership with stakeholders. A key challenge identified is financing, as plans cannot succeed without a solid and accessible funding pathway to support the transition toward an innovative water economy and society.

Furthermore, he emphasized the importance of supporting market uptake and the dissemination of innovations, leveraging the results of research and development. He reiterated the value of water-oriented living labs, applying a quadruple helix approach in real-life contexts to test and replicate solutions. Water Europe has already established a network of 25 living labs, fostering dialogue, experience exchange, and adaptive innovation, with finance as a central enabler. Mr. Joffrey Lapilus, Advocacy Lead at the French Water Partnership (Onsite Moderator), emphasized that collaboration is key, including collaboration on funding. To elaborate on international cooperation, the moderator invited speakers to share perspectives on how the EU Water Resilience Strategy could foster cooperation between countries and continents.

Panel Discussion

Feedback from Mr. Nemoto, MLIT Japan:
Using Japan as a case study, He highlighted stakeholder coordination within river basins. Japan, as an island nation, has a relatively more straightforward system compared with Europe’s multiple countries. In Japan, River Basin Councils are established for each major river, comprising representatives from river administrators, local governments, and other relevant agencies. The councils coordinate flood control, water circulation, drought management, and other water-related issues across the basin. In case of conflicts, the national government mediates to ensure agreement and effective action.

Feedback from Dr. Namkung, KWF:
He reiterated Korea’s longstanding successes in water management over the past 30 to 50 years. However, a key challenge remains financing, as water and sewerage tariffs are subsidized and below production costs, preventing full cost recovery. Korea seeks to learn from European experiences and explore future collaboration and knowledge exchange to enhance financing, governance, and integrated approaches to water resilience.

Q&A and Audience Interaction

Financing and Project Maturity
Ms. Daphne Voss (European Investment Bank) noted that financing challenges often stem not from a lack of funds but from immature projects and insufficient local capacity. Many initiatives fail to meet sustainability criteria or lack skilled personnel, hindering due diligence and access to loans. She asked how these gaps could be addressed.

Mr. Rick Elmendorp (NWP) agreed, emphasizing that while both projects and funding exist, they often fail to align. He suggested involving investors early in project design to co-create viable business cases that can attract financing, rather than seeking funds at later stages.

Mr. Jesper Goodley (DWF) raised the issue of financing innovative projects, noting that traditional funding mechanisms favor proven solutions, which may limit innovation. He questioned whether financiers are willing to support higher-risk projects with potential high impact.

Mr. Rubini (Water Europe) added that collaboration is key to improving financial effectiveness. Clustering and coordinating projects can minimize duplication, maximize synergies, and optimize resource use—allowing funds to be leveraged more efficiently.

Emerging Issues: PFAS and Micropollutants
Dr. Pierre Flament (Japan Sanitation Consortium) asked how the EU plans to finance new directives on micropollutants and PFAS, which require costly quaternary wastewater treatment.

Mr. Rubini (Water Europe) responded that addressing PFAS is a shared societal challenge requiring coordinated action and investment from multiple stakeholders. Efforts must focus both on removing contaminants and identifying safe alternatives.

Mr. João Simão Pires (PWP) added that upgrading treatment plants entails high costs, especially for large or vulnerable facilities. Extended producer responsibility schemes are under consideration, with around 70% of costs covered by the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries and the remainder through public subsidies and tariff adjustments. Preliminary studies suggest this would moderately impact tariffs—by about 8–10%—a manageable level for households and industry.

Innovation and Adaptation
An online participant, Wayne White, asked Dr. Eun Namkung (KWF) whether floating solar panels reduce water loss from evaporation in Korea. Dr. Namkung noted that early studies show some reduction in evaporation, though floating solar systems are mainly installed on large dams rather than smaller reservoirs.

Restoring the Water Cycle and Infrastructure Resilience
Mr. Robert Bradburn (UK Environment Agency) asked whether the EU’s Water Resilience Strategy and Water Framework Directive are sufficient or if new approaches are needed to achieve a resilient water future.

Mr. Rick Elmendorp (NWP) emphasized that restoring the water cycle sustainably requires placing nature-based solutions (NbS) at the core of water management. NbS help restore ecosystems, reduce risks, and enhance adaptive capacity and should move from being “nice to have” to a central policy focus.

Mr. Jesper Goodley (DWF) added that implementation must be dynamic, with action plans regularly reviewed and adapted to changing conditions. He reaffirmed the importance of collaboration and cross-European cooperation, recognizing Water Europe as a key platform for advancing this agenda.

Mr. Rubini (Water Europe) emphasized the importance of integrating grey and green infrastructure, combining traditional systems with nature-based design to create resilient, multifunctional systems, such as sponge cities. He noted that existing design standards are insufficient in the face of climate change and that new models are essential for long-term adaptability.

Climate Change and System Flexibility
Ms. Josefina (Ministry of Ecological Transition, Spain) inquired about how Europe can redesign its infrastructure to adapt to rising temperatures, increased evaporation, and more frequent extreme floods.

Mr. Rubini (Water Europe) stressed that sustainable water management must re-establish balance between human use and nature. Engineers must design systems that return water to natural ecosystems while supporting societal needs, reducing conflicts among sectors such as agriculture, tourism, and industry.

Dr. Namkung (KWF) emphasized prioritizing adaptation alongside mitigation, noting that global “water positive” corporate initiatives—reducing extraction and reusing wastewater—offer practical models for sustainability.

Integrating Water and Climate Policies
Moderator Mr. Joffrey Lapilus (FWP) asked how water can be prioritized within the upcoming European Climate Adaptation Plan and related policy frameworks.

Mr. Rick Elmendorp (NWP) responded that water must be integrated across all sectors through collective, cross-country roadmaps. While many roadmaps exist, he emphasized the need for interconnected planning between water and climate agendas. The key, he concluded, is to start implementing and scaling from existing practices—learning by identifying effective, replicable solutions.

Wrap Up: Key takeaway message from each speaker

In closing, speakers emphasized that collaboration remains the cornerstone of advancing water resilience in Europe and beyond.

Mr. Jesper Goodley Dannisøe (DWF) emphasized the importance of cross-sector “handshakes,” understanding regional differences, and utilizing gap analyses to identify and address missing elements.

Dr. Eun Namkung (KWF) emphasized the importance of developing and retaining human resources in the water sector, while inspiring young people to become future professionals.

Mr. João Simão Pires (PWP) formally proposed welcoming British Water to the NoWNET network and recommended engaging with Water Europe as a next step to transform discussions into concrete collaborative action.

An invitation accepted by Mr. Rubini (Water Europe), who viewed the session as a first step toward stronger cooperation.

Mr. Nemoto, MLIT Japan, stressed the need for financial collaboration to strengthen water resilience and expressed appreciation for Europe’s innovative approaches.

Mr. Rick Elmendorp (NWP) called for immediate, multi-level action—across partnerships, governance, and finance—to accelerate progress. In his closing remarks, Mr. Lapilus (FWP) reaffirmed NoWNET’s commitment to continued collaboration among its member countries and global partners.

(Reported by Yumiko Asayama, Chief Manager)