Global Virtual Water Flows and a Water Resource Curse?
Date:
This presentation examines how global supply chains redistribute green, blue, and grey virtual-water pressures across 189 countries from 2010 to 2021. It connects component-specific net and gross embodied-water outflows with manufacturing structure, trade openness, water-withdrawal capacity, and economic growth. The results do not support a generic macro-level water resource curse. The accompanying Quantinar courselet includes the full presentation and eight review questions.
Authors: Weimin Jiang, Jiajing Sun, Michael Cole, and Yuanbo Zhang.
Programme details: June 18, 2026, 10:00-11:00 (UTC+8), online.
The seminar was jointly organized by the IAEE Asia-Oceania Research Committee, the Institute for Global Governance and Innovation (IGGI), City University of Hong Kong, and the Energy Economics and Environmental Management Research Laboratory (E3M). The Quantinar review questions cover Global Virtual Water Flows: Concepts and Evidence.
Resources
The presentation is based on Jiang, W., Sun, J., Cole, M., and Zhang, Y. (2026), “Virtual water in global supply chains: Trade structure, industrial composition, and policy levers,” Ecological Economics, 248, 109068.