Maria Cristina Rulli of the University of Milan and Paolo D’Odorico of the University of California Berkeley were PSIPW’s party-level delegates to the 29th Conferences of the Parties on Climate Change a party-level delegate to the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 29), which took place from 11 to 22 November 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The COP29 summit brought parties together to discuss how governments can take action to limit and prepare for future climate change. A particular focus of COP 29 was to develop ways to finance the efforts of poorer and less developed countries to mitigate the effects of climate change and help developing nations transition to more sustainable energy sources.

The research areas of PSIPW’s two delegates were particularly well suited to COP 29’s particular focus this year.

Maria Cristina Rulli is Full Professor of Hydrology and Water and Food Security at the Polytechnic of Milan and vice president of the Italian Society of Water Engineering. Her research focuses on the interaction between hydrological processes and humanity. Using the Food-Energy-Water (FEW) nexus perspective, she has been investigating the impacts on food and water security induced by global changes, particularly climate change.

Professor Rulli advised COP on the impact of nature-based solutions for climate change mitigation on global water resources.

Paolo D’Odorico is the Thomas J. Graff Professor of Natural Resources at the University of California Berkeley. His research focuses on the role of hydrological processes in the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems, along with investigating the globalization of water through virtual water trade and international land investments, and its impact on water equity, societal resilience, environmental stewardship, and food security. His research group has been identifying global patterns of land and water tenure, and linkages between sustainability and justice in the context of the fulfillment of human rights and the rights of nature.

Professor D’Odorico advised COP by providing a hydrological perspective on technological solutions to climate change and their limits.

PSIPW has sent a party-level delegate to COP since 2016. In previous years, the PSIPW delegate has advised COP on [1] the impact of climate change on groundwater management, [2] effective rain and floodwater harvesting and storage under the uncertainties of climate change, [3] unlocking private capital in efforts to ameliorate the effects of climate change on water resources, [4] harnessing Earth observation for food and water security, and [5] addressing the challenge of drought under climate change in water scarce and data scarce regions.

Like most PSIPW delegates to COP, Rulli and D’Odorico are PSIPW laureates. They won PSIPW’s 11th Award Creativity Prize in 2024 for providing novel analyses of the water-energy-food nexus, describing how numerous, complex factors interact, providing managers and policymakers better ways to be stewards of freshwater in a changing, globalised world.