We mustn't waste water while taking action on climate change

Should we pick and choose our climate strategies based on how water-wise they are? As our new rsearch published in Climatic Change shows, some activities aimed at tackling greenhouse emissions can also consume large amounts of water. In a water-poor country like Australia, this can make a real difference in the relative economic attractiveness of these strategies. In particular, wide-scale planting of trees to store carbon can be very water-intensive, and we should therefore consider carefully where we do it. However, there is good news too. Reducing our electricity demand through energy efficiency and shifting to renewable sources can not only reduce our carbon footprint, but also our water footprint too. Burning coal for electricity consumes water, so if we can reduce this demand and shift to more sustainable technology, more water may become available for the environment and other uses