Covid-19 immediately triggered food security concerns. Early in the pandemic, the World Food Programme estimated that Covid-19 will double the number of people facing food crises from 130 million to 265 million in 2020.

At WaterAid’s Water and Climate Summit in London, March 2020, a High-Level Group led by HRH Prince of Wales pledged to work towards boosting available finance for climate-resilient water, sanitation and hygiene, creating the Water and Climate Finance Initiative (WCFI).

Global shifts in water and sanitation will have a profound effect on societies and economies. Other transformations are shaping these shifts, including where people live, what they expect from governments and markets, their productive and polluting activities, how they innovate and whether they pursue conflict or peace.

Water is predicted to be the primary medium through which early climate change impacts will be felt by people, ecosystems and economies. Both observational records and climate projections provide strong evidence that freshwater resources are vulnerable, and have the potential to be strongly impacted.