The water security sector has faced the chronic challenge of sustaining safe water investment over time, and this issue remains a critical development barrier, particularly when combined with increasing rates of water insecurity globally. Furthermore, the nexus between climate change and water insecurity contributes significantly towards global emissions, placing water security issues at the center of climate change conversations. Lastly, the water security sector is facing an existential financing crisis given the reductions in commitments by several bilateral donors, thus making alternative sources of financing to scale building and sustaining systems critical and timely.
However, many water security, sanitation, and hygiene (WSSH) implementers face significant barriers in navigating the complex and evolving landscape of carbon finance, including unclear methodologies, high transaction costs, and limited capacity to engage with carbon markets and host country requirements.
To address these issues, the Millennium Water Alliance (MWA), in partnership with Virridy and the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder), will be convening a technical working group (TWG) focused on bringing together carbon credit project implementers and project developers. The TWG seeks to address these challenges by fostering peer learning and joint advocacy while developing practical guidance to help project developers unlock the full potential of carbon credits to scale sustainable drinking water access.
MWA, Virridy, and CU Boulder are well positioned to lead this TWG. These partners have demonstrated active leadership at the intersection of climate resilience and water access. Through the [Drought Resilience Impact Platform-Fixing Uptime Now and Decision Improvement (DRIP FUNDI) project](https://mwawater.org/pioneering-sustainable-water-solutions-with-carbon-credit-financing-in-drought-stricken-northern-kenya-drip-fundi/#:~:text=The initial carbon credits from,System and the Kenya NDMA.), MWA, CU Boulder, and Virridy have pioneered the integration of carbon credit financing into rural drinking water systems in northern Kenya to support payment of repairs, operations, and maintenance, demonstrating a real-world application and innovation in this emerging space. This carbon credit program ensured that boreholes could continue to be repaired and maintained after the initial funding period. More broadly, MWA and Virridy have partnered together to launch and scale carbon credit schemes across multiple countries. Additionally, MWA recently completed a carbon feasibility study, further deepening its technical expertise and strategic insight into the opportunities and challenges of carbon markets for WSSH. The research aimed to determine how carbon finance can not only sustain WSSH initiatives but also support scale up by providing new strategies to ensure long-term water security and resource management. Lastly, with a strong network of members and a proven track record in convening collaborative learning platforms, MWA offers the credibility, experience, and partnerships needed to drive collective action and influence in climate finance.
With their robust technical expertise, Virridy has served as a project developer for MWA and others. Virridy – www.virridy.com, specializes in two complementary areas – the development of high-quality carbon credits from global water security programs and the development of water quality sensors used in these programs to provide high integrity monitoring and verification. Virridy’s current portfolio includes five programs in East Africa that are collectively on track to reach three million people with clean water services and generate over a million carbon credits by 2030. Virridy wholly owns and operates a program in Rwanda reaching 500,000 children by the end of this year and is the project developer and offtaker for programs in Kenya, DR Congo, and Madagascar with LifeStraw, MWA, and Helvetas.
Research efforts at the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering and Resilience at the University of Colorado Boulder are conducted with faculty, students, staff, and external partners and focus on improving global development tools and practice. Relevant research themes include water and food security; development finance; organizational theory and systems science; water, sanitation, energy, infrastructure, and agricultural technologies and methods; impact measurement evaluation, data, tools and technologies; and engineering in disaster relief, shelter and infrastructure.
The intention of this TWG is to be a discrete, results/output-oriented group. Intended as a “sprint group,” this TWG is designed to deliver work relatively quickly through intensive group action. The goals of this TWG are stated below but will be further refined through a consultative process with key TWG members and revisited on an annual basis:
The remaining sections of this concept note lay out an illustrative set of learning questions, a timeline, and a set of deliverables that will be pressure-tested with TWG members and agreed upon prior to full launch of the TWG.
Below are some illustrative examples of learning questions that this TWG can address. From this list, the TWG will need to decide on and/or prioritize 1-2 questions (at most) annually.