The focus of this paper is on Water-Energy-Carbon Nexus at a domestic level and how it presents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is the contribution of water and energy to greenhouse gas (GHG emissions); the opportunity is to provide solutions, such as the 50L home, as a building block to signicantly reduce GHG emissions.
In the race to net zero, is there a blind spot? Are opportunities being missed to reduce carbon in homes through water efficiency? This missed opportunity is the Water-Energy-Carbon (WEC) nexus – the intertwining relationship between water and energy systems and their subsequent impact on carbon emissions. Many studies and papers have documented, commented and advised on the impact of climate change on water resources, but few have focussed on how reducing water usage and associated activities in the home can mitigate climate change. A deeper understanding of the WEC nexus is required. At a broad scale, the nexus involves how energy is used to abstract, treat and transport water for domestic, commercial and agricultural use, and how water is used to produce different types of energy. This, however, does not provide a full picture of the WEC nexus and the information is missing on what happens inside homes. The focus of this paper is therefore on the WEC nexus at a domestic level and how it presents both a challenge and an opportunity.