Powering a Resilient Future: Why the 2026 UN Water Conference Matters for Energy, Food and Investment

HE Abdulla Balalaa, UAE Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Energy and Sustainability

Water is not a standalone issue. It is the system beneath all systems — the resource that keeps our economies running, our food growing, our energy flowing, and our communities resilient.

Yet, we continue to plan, finance, and regulate water, energy, and food as though they operate independently. For a world investing trillions in new infrastructure, accelerating the energy transformation, and adapting to climate change, this is a fundamental strategic mistake.

We cannot build resilient energy systems without planning for water. We cannot secure food supplies without protecting the water they depend on. And, we cannot make sound investment decisions if we overlook the connections between them.

This December, the 2026 UN Water Conference in Abu Dhabi offers an opportunity to bring these priorities together and turn shared ambition into practical solutions. Through the UAE’s The Oasis, a dynamic and open hub for innovation, investment, and collaboration, the p will connect policymakers, businesses, investors, technology leaders, and youth working to build a more water-secure future.

For leaders in energy and sustainability, the opportunity is clear: to help shape the investments and partnerships that strengthen water security, support food systems and power resilient economies.

The risks do not stop at sector boundaries

Agriculture accounts for around 72 percent of global freshwater withdrawals. Meanwhile, global food demand is expected to increase by around 50 percent by 2050 compared with 2012. At the same time, growing populations, industrial development, and changing energy systems are placing additional demands on water resources.

These pressures are deeply connected. Energy is needed to pump, treat, and desalinate water. Water is essential to agriculture, industry, digital infrastructure, and many forms of energy generation and production. Food systems depend on reliable water supplies, while the infrastructure supporting all three sectors is increasingly exposed to climate extremes.

A disruption in one system can quickly become a problem for another. Water shortages can constrain power generation and industrial production. Energy disruptions can affect water treatment, pumping, and desalination. Drought can undermine agricultural output, raise food prices, and place pressure on communities and supply chains. Yet our planning and investment decisions too often account for these risks separately.

The result is avoidable exposure. Infrastructure designed without considering future water availability can become more expensive to operate. Energy projects that overlook water requirements can face constraints. Agricultural investments that fail to account for water stress can leave producers and supply chains vulnerable.

Resilience can no longer be built one sector at a time when it is clear that the risks move across all of them.

Scarcity has taught the UAE to think differently

For the UAE, this connection is not theoretical. In an arid climate, water has always shaped how our communities live, how our economy develops, and how our future is planned.

Our ancestors developed aflaj systems to distribute scarce water through collective knowledge and stewardship. Today, that same ingenuity and instinct to innovate informs investments in desalination, water reuse, smart irrigation, controlled-environment agriculture, and digital water management.

The lesson is not that every country should follow the same model. Water challenges differ by geography, economy, and capacity.

Instead, the lesson is that resilience begins by understanding the resources we have, the demands we place on them, and the dependencies connecting our essential systems.

It means asking different questions before decisions are made: How much water will this infrastructure require over its lifetime? How will climate change affect its reliability? Can technology reduce its resource intensity? What happens to the wider system if one component fails?

These questions belong in energy planning, industrial strategy, agricultural policy, and investment appraisal. Integration is how we make better decisions in a world where resources and industries are increasingly interconnected and interdependent.

The investment case is hiding in plain sight

For business leaders and investors, water is both an operational risk and an economic opportunity.

The annual economic value of water and freshwater ecosystems has been estimated at US$58 trillion, equivalent to around 60 percent of global GDP. That figure reflects how deeply economic activity depends on water and the natural systems that sustain it, however, this value is not reflected in the way capital is allocated.

Businesses assess energy costs, supply-chain exposure, and infrastructure risk. Water deserves the same level of attention. Companies need to understand their dependence on water, identify vulnerabilities across their operations and suppliers, and invest in the efficiency and resilience of the systems on which they rely.

For investors, this means looking beyond individual projects to the wider systems that determine whether those projects will succeed. Water-efficient agriculture, reuse and recycling, advanced desalination, digital monitoring, and more resilient infrastructure can deliver benefits across several sectors at once.

Solutions need viable business models, clear regulatory frameworks, projects prepared for investment and partnerships that distribute risk appropriately. Governments must create the conditions for capital to flow. Development finance institutions can help make projects investment-ready. Businesses and investors must help turn demand for solutions into projects that can be financed and scaled.

The opportunity is not simply to invest more in water. It is to invest more intelligently across the systems that water connects.

From shared ambition to practical delivery

This is why the 2026 UN Water Conference, co-hosted by the UAE and Senegal, matters beyond the water sector.

As only the third UN Water Conference since 1977, and the first specifically focused on accelerating implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 6, it is an opportunity to move water higher on the economic and development agenda.

Through six Interactive Dialogues, including one focused on investments for water, the Conference will bring governments and stakeholders together to connect water priorities with the finance, technology, expertise, and partnerships needed to deliver them.

For the energy and sustainability community, this is an opportunity to help shape a more integrated approach to resilience — one that recognizes water as a strategic consideration in project design, infrastructure planning, and capital allocation.

The measure of success will be what happens after the Conference: whether capital is mobilized, projects advance, technologies are deployed, and communities experience tangible improvements.

That requires the participation of people beyond the traditional water sector — especially energy companies, infrastructure developers, financial institutions, technology businesses, and investors whose decisions will shape the resilience of entire systems.

The Oasis: An invitation to help shape what comes next

That is why the UAE is opening the conversation beyond the formal UN program through The Oasis, a free-to-attend space that is open to all.

Across three days, The Oasis will bring together businesses, investors, innovators, policymakers, researchers, civil society, and youth through dynamic programming, immersive exhibitions, country pavilions, and opportunities to connect and collaborate.

High-level convenings, announcements, key notes, and working sessions will follow a clear arc over the three days: Day one will see a focus on the theme of Water for Shared Prosperity, day two on Investments for Lives & Livelihoods, and day three on building a Resilient Future Together. The inaugural Abu Dhabi Water and Power Week will also bring energy and water stakeholders into the same conversation, creating opportunities to explore the technologies, policies, and partnerships needed to build more resilient systems.

For businesses and investors, The Oasis is an opportunity to identify new partners, explore emerging solutions, and help accelerate projects from innovation to implementation. For policymakers and technology leaders, it offers a space to exchange experience and build the conditions for solutions to scale. And for our inspiring next generation, it creates opportunities to contribute ideas and perspectives to the future of water security.

The decisions made today on water, energy, and food will shape the resilience of our economies for decades to come. We cannot afford to get them wrong.

I invite the energy, food, finance and sustainability communities to join us in Abu Dhabi — to bring forward solutions, build partnerships, and help shape the investments that will power a more resilient future.

Building resilience starts with water

The decisions we make today on water, energy, and food will shape the resilience of our economies for decades to come. We cannot afford to make them in isolation.

The next generation of infrastructure must account for the resources that sustain growth, power our economies, and feed our populations. That means bringing water into investment decisions from the outset, aligning priorities across sectors, and building partnerships that can take proven solutions to scale.

Water cannot be an afterthought. It must be a starting point.

When we plan for water, energy, and food together, we strengthen economies, unlock investment, and build lasting resilience The 2026 UN Water Conference is an opportunity to turn that shared understanding into practical action.

Every future flows from water. By planning and investing across water, energy and food together, we can unlock new opportunities for growth and build resilience that lasts.