Elevating Global Water Bankruptcy in the UN system and Rio Conventions.

 

A new global agenda for water must therefore take Global Water Bankruptcy as a starting point rather than an afterthought, treating the distinction between stress, crisis and bankruptcy, as well as the associated notions of hydrological carrying capacity, anthropogenic drought, insolvency, and irreversibility, as core organizing concepts for international cooperation. Trade, finance, migration, climate feedbacks, and shared ecosystems connect waterbankrupt systems across borders. Managing Global Water Bankruptcy therefore requires stronger international cooperation and a higher profile for water across the multilateral system. The three Rio Conventions on climate change, biodiversity, and desertification, together with the processes around the Water Action Decade (2018–2028) and fulfillment of SDG 6 by 2030, the follow-up to the UN 2023 Water Conference, and the upcoming UN Water Conferences of 2026 and 2028 have vital roles to play. Each Rio Convention already touches water in important ways: climate change mitigation and adaptation measures affect hydrology and the degrading water capital intensifies climate change; biodiversity frameworks depend on healthy freshwater ecosystems; desertification and land-degradation agendas are intimately linked to soil moisture, drought, and water management. Yet in practice, water is often treated as a co-benefit or secondary variable rather than as a core structuring constraint and opportunity.