The Water-Energy Nexus and the Human Right to Water | HRC60 Side Event

About this Event

In the framework of the 60th Regular Session of the Human Rights Council (HRC60), the Permanent Mission of Spain, the Permanent Mission of Germany, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, and the Geneva Environment Network an convening an event to reflect on the thematic report presented by the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation entitled Water and Energy Nexus (A/HRC/60/30). This event aims to elevate the conversation around how energy systems directly impact the human right to water.

Why it matters

Water is a fundamental human right. The systems that produce and distribute energy often compromise access to safe drinking water, especially for marginalized communities. From the over-extraction of water for cooling power plants to pollution from fossil fuel operations, energy production can threaten the right to water that international law seeks to protect.

Key Themes of the Special Rapporteur’s report:

• Energy systems impact on the human right to water: The report underscores how energy-intensive industries can deplete and contaminate water sources, infringing on communities’ rights to safe water and sanitation.
• Water governance: It calls for a human rights-based approach that ensures participation, transparency, access to information and accountability, prioritizing the human right to water over profit.
• Just Transitions: A double water and energy transition must be rooted in human rights, prioritizing the human right to water and protecting aquatic ecosystems that are fundamental to the water supply.
• Emerging Questions: Should access to sustainable energy be considered a human right? And how can energy systems be redesigned to uphold—not undermine—the right to water?

This event served as a platform to discuss the intersection of the human right to water and energy systems. It invited member states, right holders and stakeholders to rethink governance models, advocate for transparency, and explore how energy transitions can be leveraged to strengthen the human right to water.

Speakers

H.E. Amb. Marcos GÓMEZ MARTÍNEZ

Permanent Representative of Spain to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva

H.E. Amb. Antje LEENDERTSE

Permanent Representative of Germany to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva

Pedro ARROJO AGUDO

UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to water and sanitation

Magdalena ROCHI

Programme Officer on Climate and Environmental Justice, Global Initiative Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR) (Video Message)

Rina KUUSIPALO

Human Rights Officer, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

Christopher CASTILLO

General Coordinator, Alternativa Reivindicación Comunitaria y Ambientalista de Honduras (ARCAH)

Christiaan VAN VEEN

Human Rights Lawyer (Video Message)

Diana RIZZOLIO

Coordinator, Geneva Environment Network | Moderator

Highlights

Videos

Live from Palais des Nations

Magdalena ROCHI, GI-ESCR

Christiaan VAN VEEN, Human Rights Lawyer

Summary

Opening

H.E. Amb. Marcos GÓMEZ MARTÍNEZ | Permanent Representative of Spain to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva

• The meeting aims to provide space for dialogue and reflection on the thematic report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation entitled Water and Energy Nexus (A/HRC/60/30) which emphasizes that a just and sustainable energy transition must be grounded in human rights.
• The report highlights several areas requiring collective attention: the need for a people-centered approach in water and energy governance to ensure safety and inclusivity; recognition of the crucial role women play in sustainable resource management, particularly as they often bear the burden of disruptions; the importance of state accountability as a matter of human rights and international obligations, with states carrying responsibility to lead toward the 2026 World Conference; and the role of global partnerships, as reflected in SDG 17, to build cooperation, alliances, and synergies in advancing the international water agenda.
• While the scale of the challenges is already well known, there is an urgent need of effective interstate, multi-actor, and multistakeholder cooperation to meet the goals of the 2030 Agenda, and there is a big value of learning from one another.

Keynote Presentation: Main Findings and Recommendations of the Thematic Report on the Water and Energy Nexus

Pedro ARROJO AGUDO | UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to water and sanitation

• Energy is essential to ensure access to safe drinking water, while water is equally fundamental to energy production, yet market-driven energy models and the privatization/commodification of water too often put economic profit above environmental integrity and human rights.
• If we want a sustainable, democratic future we need a dual, just transition in water and energy grounded in human rights, the protection of aquatic ecosystems, and the fight against climate change. Because massive CO₂ emissions are the main driver of climate change, the energy transition must be the central axis of mitigation, but the main social risks and impacts arise from the water cycle, so adaptation strategies must be led by a water transition — energy leading mitigation, water leading adaptation.
• Sustainability and equity must apply to both transitions: it makes no sense to pursue an energy transition that destroys aquatic ecosystems or a water transition that accelerates climate change, and large dams should not be relaunched as the primary solution.
• Clean alternatives (wind, solar, biofuels, green hydrogen) depend on scarce critical minerals that create serious social problems, and focusing land or resources on biofuels can hinder food production, so we also need changes in consumption patterns to slow demand growth.
• Concerning water, we must restore and preserve aquatic ecosystems and respect natural limits altered by climate change. A human-rights based approach means protecting basic water and energy from pure market logic so even those who struggle to pay can access them; recognizing a right to energy (as with the right to drinking water) would provide a normative basis for alternative models, supported by public budgets, transparent regulation, social participation and public accountability.
• The uncontrolled growth of mega data centres — opaque contracts and soaring electricity and water demands — risks diverting resources from fundamental social and environmental uses and from the energy transition; a moratorium is needed with clear disclosure of water and energy demands, and regulation prioritizing sustainability, equity and human rights. Cryptocurrencies are called out as dark, speculative strategies, and caution is urged about artificial intelligence: if it accelerates unsustainability in water and energy, it would be profoundly unintelligent, potentially suicidal.

Panel Discussion

Magdalena ROCHI | Programme Officer on Climate and Environmental Justice, Global Initiative Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR) (Video Message)

• There is a close synergy between energy and water, as the energy transition advances, the availability and sustainability of resources are increasingly under strain, partly due to overconsumption, diversion, and the climate emergency itself. It is therefore crucial to examine the impacts each sector has on the other to ensure sustainable provision for current and future generations.
• As a concrete example, GI-ESCR did a partnership work with Chile, with indigenous women human rights defenders, documenting how lithium extraction—critical for green energy technologies—is severely impacting water rights in the Atacama and Antofagasta regions.
• Mining is depleting scarce freshwater sources, worsening drought and desertification, and undermining traditional ways of life such as free-range husbandry, food cultivation, and the gathering of medicinal plants. The irony is that in pursuing clean energy solutions, fundamental water rights are being violated in communities least responsible for the climate crisis. To address this, they developed guiding principles on gender equality and human rights in the energy transition, aiming to align practice with international human rights standards.
• A just renewable energy shift must not replicate the harmful practices of fossil fuels, and states must guarantee human rights across the entire renewable energy life cycle, from mineral extraction to energy consumption. The special report under discussion is pivotal as it calls for explicit recognition of the right to clean and sustainable energy as a human right under international law—an essential step toward framing energy not as a commodity but as a foundation of human dignity and planetary well-being. Such recognition could help address inequalities in access to energy, which perpetuate poverty and undermine rights to water, healthcare, food, housing, education, environmental protection, and gender and children’s rights.
• The interdependence of water and energy rights makes clear that each is essential for the realization of the other. A sustainable future requires governance models that empower communities, promote energy sovereignty, and establish clear regulations to ensure energy is available, accessible, affordable, and sustainable for all.
• There is an urgency to engage with the special rapporteur’s work and to reflect on how to collectively ensure an energy future that serves both people and planet.

Rina KUUSIPALO | Human Rights Officer, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights 

• There are connections between the Special Rapporteur’s report on a “double just transition” in water and energy systems and the Secretary-General’s new report on just transition and human rights. Both reports emphasize transitions that are fair, equitable, inclusive, environmentally sustainable, and rooted in human rights.
• Referencing the IPCC and the recent advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, limiting warming to 1.5°C requires unprecedented systemic changes, and states may be acting wrongfully under international law if they fail to protect the climate system, including by continuing fossil fuel production. Fossil fuels not only drive climate change but also consume large amounts of water, pollute water bodies, and threaten health, with fossil fuel–related air pollution estimated to cause nearly one in five deaths globally.
• The ICJ has affirmed that states have obligations under international human rights law to protect the environment, with the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment—including access to safe water—seen as essential for the enjoyment of all other rights.
• The Secretary-General’s report highlights that equitable clean energy transitions can create decent jobs, reduce pollution and injustice, and strengthen energy security, especially when driven by publicly owned, community-led systems. Rights-based governance, democracy, and decentralized water and energy infrastructure are therefore fundamental.
• Turning to critical transition minerals, extraction is often linked to human rights abuses, environmental harm, and conflict, with more than half of reserves located on or near indigenous lands. Without a rights-based approach, the new energy economy risks replicating past injustices.
• Both reports underline the need for fair benefit-sharing, sustainable use of resources, and respect for the right to free, prior, and informed consent, while preventing toxic water contamination.
• The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights stands ready to support states and stakeholders in implementing rights-based approaches to just transitions everywhere.

Christopher CASTILLO | General Coordinator, Alternativa Reivindicación Comunitaria y Ambientalista de Honduras (ARCAH)

• Water is the fundamental basis of life, from our bodies, which are mainly composed of water, to the food we eat, which is planted and harvested under the water cycle. Water is also the basis for all forms of life. However, within the framework of the current consumption model and in order to meet the demands and whims of the private sector in Honduras, water is used to generate energy through hydroelectric projects.
• Energy demand in Honduras has increased by an average of 3 to 5 % per year, with wide disparities in access to electricity, where only 45 % of the population has access to electricity. In contrast, Honduras sells energy to neighboring countries. A country whose energy matrix is heavily dependent on fossil fuels and which tries to disguise its poor environmental practices by selling the idea that hydroelectric power is a clean option, which is false since in addition to the fact that these projects have immense negative environmental impacts, they are located in predominantly indigenous communities, where the right to free, prior, and informed consultation is not respected, and where those who defend their territories from these projects, which arrive with a discourse of death disguised as development, are persecuted, criminalized, and murdered. Such is the case of projects that have taken away the peace, freedom, and lives of people and communities, such as the hydroelectric projects in Reitoca, Piedras Amarillas, Jilamito, and Agua Zarca in Lenca territory.
• Water should not be prey to energy generation projects; access to water is a recognized right. However, we must begin to question the concept of rights beyond what states recognize or do not recognize.
• We, the people, must organize ourselves to defend the common goods of nature, whether governments like it or not, whether it is included in the law or not, because we cannot wait for countries and companies to agree to defend life. We have less and less time. If we do not act now en masse, private capital will end up destroying all forms of life, and that is something that is happening right now.
• We must question the current demand for energy. For whom is energy being produced? Why are the rich the ones who benefit most? Why should we accept and remain silent in the face of the rich and powerful as they destroy rivers and forests? We will not do so. ARCAH will continue to organize, denounce, and dismantle all projects of death in Honduras territories.
• In addition to this situation, Honduras has a legal framework that is slowly privatizing water throughout the country, with the support of international financial institutions, particularly the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, in coordination with criminal organizations in Honduras that have been widely accused of involvement in drug trafficking.
• In short, Honduras is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for the defense of nature and life, being the country with the highest number of murders per capita in the world, and one of the countries with the most legal actions against environmentalists. Rivers are seriously threatened by the promotion of more than 300 dam and hydroelectric projects, which involve the mass dispossession of territories to satisfy an energy and financial demand that does not coincide with the interests of the people.
• ARCAH requests that the State of Honduras be urged to sign and ratify the Escazú Agreement, to cancel all projects that have been denounced by communities and where there are socio-environmental conflicts, especially in indigenous territories, and to investigate and prosecute those who have taken the lives of defenders.
• ARCAH also requests that the government of the Republic of Honduras review and repeal the Framework Law on Drinking Water and Sanitation in Honduras. Water is not for sale; it must be cared for and defended.

Christiaan VAN VEEN | Human Rights Lawyer (Video Message)

• From 2014 to 2020, Christiaan served as senior adviser to the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, gaining experience with thematic reports. These reports are valuable because they provide independent, well-researched analysis and help bring new human rights issues onto the international agenda. The new report rightly emphasizes that a just energy transition also requires a just water transition, both grounded in human rights.
• One sector central to this nexus is data centers. They are the engine rooms of the digital economy, powering everything from AI to email. But they consume vast and growing amounts of energy and water. According to IEA, data centers could use 4.4% of global electricity within a decade, with far higher local impacts—up to 12% in the U.S. by 2028 and 32% in Ireland by next year. They already strain grids, raise prices, and complicate the renewable transition.
• Cooling systems drive heavy water use, sometimes with dramatic impacts, such as a proposed facility in Uruguay that would have consumed the daily equivalent of 55,000 households. Producing electricity for data centers also entails massive water withdrawal—potentially 6.6 billion cubic meters by 2027 for AI alone. Yet precise data is scarce and often kept confidential.
• EU regulations demand reporting, but only about a third of data centers comply. Meanwhile, the industry is dominated by powerful big tech and colocation companies whose investments surpass many government budgets. Regulation and transparency lag far behind.
• To address these challenges, collaboration across governments, sectors, and movements is essential so we can regulate data centers effectively and shape a sustainable digital future together.

Closing

H.E. Amb. Antje LEENDERTSE | Permanent Representative of Germany to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva

• The Special Rapporteur’s report highlights the urgent need for what he calls a “global double just transition” of water and energy systems. 
• Technology and industry have a huge water footprint, and there are rising difficult emerging questions of water and governance. H.E. Amb. Antje Leendertse highlights that neither she nor the German government is anti-capitalist: what they believe is that a human rights approach—especially regarding water and energy—is always helpful, crucial for good governance, and essential to ensure decisions are made in a democratic and just way. 
• Technological change is necessary and can benefit human rights, but it also carries risks that must be carefully weighed. This is why a human rights-centered perspective on water and energy is so important.  
• Ensuring safe, equitable, and affordable access to drinking water and sanitation is a vital need and an essential part of human dignity. 
• Germany and Spain strongly support this mandate. For years, Germany has engaged with the related resolution, and Germany encourages everyone to keep the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation high on the international agenda, ensuring that this perspective is central to the 2026 UN Water Conference. 

Photo Gallery

Links

• Environment @ 60th Session of the UN Human Rights Council
• A/HRC/60/30 | Water and energy nexus | Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
• The Water Cycle and the Role of Geneva | GEN

Photo Credit

Photo by Rahul Pabolu on Unsplash