29.09-02.10 2026 | Rome, “La Nuvola” Convention Center
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The Euro-Mediterranean Water Forum is an international platform for dialogue among policymakers, civil society, academia, and businesses. The Forum combines high-level discussions with an exhibition that highlights technological and process innovations in the water sector. Its mission is to foster cooperation and joint action, engaging not only Mediterranean countries but also the European Commission, EU Member States, the Balkans, and the Middle East.
CMCC is joining the event with multiple sessions and speakers, bringing cutting-edge research and perspectives on the future of the water sector. As a member of the Scientific and Technical Committee, CMCC is also playing an active role in shaping the programme and guiding its scientific content.
The event is organized by “One Water” Committee Italy (OW), together with the Mediterranean Water Institute of Marseille (IME) and the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the strategic partnership of CIHEAM Bari and the Arab Water Council. The Institutional Organizing Committee brings together eight Italian Ministries (Foreign Affairs, Environment and Energy Security, Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry, Infrastructure and Transport, Civil Protection and Sea Policies, Health, University and Research, Public Administration), as well as Roma Capitale, the Lazio Region, and other specialized agencies and institutions.
Find out more about CMCC’s participation:
30 September, 16:30-18:00 | Room Nilo
EURO-MED TALK | Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems Nexus (T5)
Global crises — climate, demographic shifts, conflict — cannot be addressed through siloed sectoral approaches. The panel traces how Integrated Water Resources Management evolved into the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems Nexus, a governance framework for interdependent resource systems. The EuroMed Talk revisits this same theme with a more technical and vertical lens, in dialogue with practitioners and sector experts.
CMCC Speakers: Donatella Spano, Session Chair
1 October, 9:30 – 11:00 | Room Giordano
WORKSHOP | Beyond Water: Operationalizing the Nexus within Planetary Boundaries
Organized by CMCC, the side event aims to move the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems Nexus from concept to operational practice within the framework of planetary boundaries.
The Mediterranean is an advanced laboratory of planetary limits. The region is warming 20% faster than the global average, renewable water availability per capita has declined by 68–78% since the 1960s, and 180 million people already experience water scarcity. These figures do not describe a sectoral water crisis alone: they are the symptom of a systemic and increasing pressure on the different components of a nexus including Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems-Health (WEFEH) jeopardized by several anthropogenic threats acting at global and local level like climate change and environmental degradation.
At the global scale, the concept of a Safe Operating Space (SOS) for water derives from the broader planetary boundaries framework, which identifies the limits within which humanity can operate without triggering irreversible environmental damage.
For water, such boundaries define thresholds for availability, quality, and ecosystem stability, whose transgression may result in scarcity, pollution crises, biodiversity loss, and economic instability. Yet these thresholds remain difficult to set in ways that are simultaneously scientifically rigorous, regionally adaptable, and usable by policymakers. Even more challenging, the interconnections among the SOS of the different WEFE components constitute a level of complexity that has so far struggled to translate into operational practice.
This session proposes to explicitly connect these two levels, i.e. planetary limits and their local operationalization, showing examples on how research and practical experiences are contributing to close this gap, from the global scale (scientific frameworks, safe operating spaces) to the basin and field scale (digital tools, decision support, living labs).
CMCC Speakers: Marta Debolini, Guido Rianna