In Dubaï (UAE), Estelle Brachlianoff attended the opening of COP28, the world’s biggest conference focused around energy transition organised by the United Nations Climate Change Conference each year. Estelle Brachlianoff presented the Group’s solutions - calling for a “net zero water” common goal, and encouraging all stakeholders to speed up and scale up all existing solutions to achieve ecological transformation.
Acting for a net zero water common goal
This year, Veolia’s CEO participated in the opening conversation on “Partnerships for climate resilience”, alongside Bathylle Missika (OECD), Bob Sternfels (McKinsey), Anil Soni (WHO Foundation) and Aliko Dangote (Dangote Industries), talking about climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Champion of ecological transformation, Veolia calls for a net zero water objective, such as the net zero carbon one. In order to achieve our common goals, Estelle Brachlianoff encourages a global alignment in order to maximise our impact by mobilising all stakeholders and joining forces to duplicate solutions that are relevant, speed them up and scale them up whenever and wherever it is possible ! Lastly, Estelle Brachlianoff sends a powerful message regarding the private sector : “Do not only ask money from the private sector. Ask them as well for efficiency, innovation, technology and experience”, emphasising on the Group’s 170 years of expertise and multiple solutions.
As a global leader in water technologies, Veolia already deploys a large number of solutions including reusing wastewater whenever we can, desalination when needed, or saving water through network efficiency within industries through “efficiency”. In 2022, the Group saved 320 millions of m3 of water. The same year, Veolia reused 990 million m3 of treated wastewater. Those solutions are deployed all around the world, to help our clients adapt to the climate crisis :
Our solutions for action:
Examples of up to scale solutions:
- In Jordan, our WWTP in As Samra, produces 10% of the country’s water needs and 25% of the water needed by the agricultural sector. We contribute to the food safety of the country, in a context of severe water stress.
- In West Basin, California, the Edward C. Little plant produces around 150,000 m3 of water every day, making it one of the largest water recycling facilities in the United States. It produces five distinct water qualities, meeting different criteria for various uses.
- In Chile, our subsidiary Aguas Andinas rolled out a climate change adaptation investment plan to deal with drought, turbidity and the ageing and degradation of infrastructures.
We have the technologies, the expertise, the global footprint, but we cannot solve adaptation by ourselves : these solutions, which are already available, must be massively deployed throughout the world. That is why, I believe we must accelerate and go further, collectively.
Estelle Brachlianoff
Helping cities and industries by scaling up existing solutions
At Veolia, mitigation and adaptation are at the core of our activity and have been incorporated in our Purpose and are piloted through our multifaceted performance, which consists of both financial and extra financial indicators, five of which are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Veolia is therefore dedicated to helping cities and industries to decarbonise, depollute, and regenerate their resources thanks to the Group’s expertise and solutions.
Expertise et solutions:
Rather than mitigation, Veolia is calling for adaptation. Indeed, water is at the heart of the challenge of adaptation. The world is already facing massive pressures on the resource and expect that 40% of the world population will suffer from water scarcity in 2050. To ensure all inhabitants on the planet can have access to safe drinking water, we need to massively implement the existing solutions, and scale up other solutions that might not be deployed on an industrial scale.
Veolia’s solutions contribute to the adaptation of our partners to climate change, by saving precious resources.
Estelle Brachlianoff