by
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Blue Planet Project, Food & Water Watch and Transnational Institute
On Wednesday, March 24 at 10:30 a.m., the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Blue Planet Project, Food & Water Watch and Transnational Institute hosted a webinar about water futures and financialization.
In December of last year, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange launched the world’s first water futures market, allowing investors to bet on the future price of water rights in California. This raised global alarms about the financialization of water resources and the threat of Wall Street speculation on water prices and scarcity. This webinar will provide an introduction to futures trading and water markets and discuss the implications for water activists around the world. (See more: Futurizing water prices: How, why, who may benefit?)
The financialization of water is not only threatening the Right to Water and Sanitation enshrined in the United Nations convention of July 2010, but it is also the last frontier for the commodification of water.
This webinar addressed the issue and included the perspectives of scholars and activists from the Global North and South. The webinar was presented in English and Spanish.
Panelists:
Maude Barlow, Chair, Blue Planet Project and Food and Water Watch
Marcela López, Center for Metropolitan Studies at the Technische Universität Berlin
Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director, Oakland Institute
Emiliano Terán Mantovani, Observatorio de Ecologia Politica de Venezuela
Steve Suppan, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Shiney Varghese, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Moderator: Satoko Kishimoto, Transnational Institute
