Welcome to The Liquid Asset, a newsletter aimed at bridging the gap between the financial markets and water security - think everything from pollution to the impacts on and of climate change, by way of water’s role in everything from energy to food and agriculture to Big Tech to you name it. Without water, after all, there’s nothing.

Why start this newsletter? Because water security gets routinely ignored, yet it’s one of the biggest risks, and opportunities, that companies, investors and economies - and thus, humans - face.

Here are three quick stats to give you an idea of where I’m coming from:

• Supplying and treating water accounts for up to 10% of greenhouse gas emissions - from the energy required and from the methane and other gases that wastewater throws off;

• Nine out of 10 effects of climate change are felt though water. That means, basically, flooding and aridification. (And yes, I’m purposely avoiding calling it “drought”. I’ll get into why in a later post.) In other words, climate adaptation is pretty much all about water security. And if you’ve seen the latest reports from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, you know we’re going to have do a lot more adapting;

• There’s $436 billion-worth of opportunity to be had from working on water security. And that’s just what some 2700 companies divulged to nonprofit CDP for its 2022 Water Report. CDP is really only in the early stages of asking for such details, so I don’t think I’m sticking my neck out by saying that number is way too low.

And for examples of what I (and colleagues) have written on water in the past, I put together an e-book back in the beforetimes, in late 2019, that also gives access to a couple of panels we ran, and ABInBev’s then-CEO Carlos Brito really scaring me by continually saying “No water, no beer”. It’s true, but still. Check it all out here

Why me?

Why should I be the one to publish this newsletter? Because I want to, to be candid, and because the internet makes it easy to. Blithe comments aside, I’ve got two things going for me.

First, I’ve been interested in water security since university, where rather further back in time than I am still willing to admit is possible, I wrote my masters thesis (yes, it’s just a grand name for a long essay)on the politics of water in the Middle East. I used to wow people at dinner parties by explaining why Jordan shouldn't grow tomatoes. That’s my recollection anyway, and I’m sticking with it.

Second, I’m a financial journalist, well, opinionista: I’ve spent the past 17 years - ooph, just seeing that in print is scary - as a columnist and editor at Reuters Breakingviews covering the highs and lows (and my god there are some lows) of Wall Street, fintech, energy and resources companies, the major carmakers (yes, including Tesla, which has has its own problems with water risk blindness) and all manner of mergers, breakups, stock offerings and other deals. Getting the money flowing (puns will happen here, sorry) is key to tackling water security’s many tributaries (see!), and I know a bit about finance, and more importantly know a lot of people who know a hell of a lot more than I ever will.

What to expect from The Liquid Asset

I’ll be honest, this is a work in progress. But it’ll be a mix of shamelessly promoting my own articles, podcast appearance and the like, and putting my own spin on water-related news and developments published by others (with due acknowledgment, I hasten to add) - all in the cause of trying to enhance understanding of - and need to act on - water security. If I can goad financiers, especially, into action, great. But it’s a newsletter for anyone who’s interested in water security. And I’m thinking it’l be a once-a-week email, though the more I play with the beehiiv site and its options, the more that might change.

I will cover risks - those are important and, as years of covering financial crises has taught me, from the 1998 Russian default to the 2001 dot-com bust to the 2008 financial meltdown to FTX and now Silicon Valley Bank, risks are too often downplayed, ignored or laughed off. And as a consequence they reappear in some form or other every. single. time.

But I don’t intend for this newsletter to become a hive of glum and doom mongering - though these won’t be wholly absent. Putting risk in context, not least of opportunity to be lost or gained, is key.

And there’ll be some light-hearted stuff in here, too - and perhaps the occasional digression into broader climate issues or other topics front of mind (I might spare you the blow-by-blow account of how a big bank screwed up my wife’s account in comically inept and infuriating ways - though then again, I might not!)

Send me your tips, thoughts and (constructive) criticism, too.

With that, onwards!