- Title
- Water trading as a climate change adaptation strategy - will we be happy if the objective is achieved?
- Creator
- Kiem, Anthony S.
- Relation
- 34th Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium. Proceedings of the 34th Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium (Sydney 19-22 November, 2012) p. 1500-1507
- Publisher
- Engineers Australia
- Resource Type
- conference paper
- Date
- 2012
- Description
- This paper summarises a recent investigation into (a) the social, economic, and environmental costs and benefits of water trading and (b) the limitations of using 'market-based' instruments (MBIs) like water trading for climate change adaptation. It was found that water trading has potential as a climate change adaptation strategy with many benefits experienced in previous and current versions of water trading. However, there are also limitations and those negatively impacted by water trading are hit hard. These social impacts of water trading have not been thoroughly investigated and are not well understood. Similarly, significant uncertainty also exists around the impacts of water trading on the environment (e.g. changed hydrological regimes, underestimation of sustainable environmental flows etc). Proper quantification of these impacts is needed, however, it is a complex task given Australia's large hydroclimatic variability and the current lack of understanding as to how to optimise the water needs of the environment, agriculture, non-agricultural industry, and human settlements. Finally, it appears that 'cap and trade' quantity-based MBIs such as water trading will eventually do what they are designed to do (i.e. reallocate a resource to 'high value' users). However, given that the 'low value' users in this case are agriculture and supply of drinking water and the 'high value' users are mining, manufacturing, and electricity production (i.e. industries with high greenhouse gas emissions) the question that must be asked is do we really want the water trading MBI to achieve its objective? And, what would the social and environmental ramifications of such a shift in water use within Australia be? These questions, along with the above-mentioned limitations and potential implications of using water trading (and MBIs in general) as a climate change adaptation tool, must be carefully considered if past drought and water policy failures are not to be repeated.
- Subject
- water trading; climate change adaptation; hydroclimatic variability; Australia
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1327846
- Identifier
- uon:25759
- Identifier
- ISBN:9781922107626
- Language
- eng
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