Water and Climate Day 1

Wednesday 20 August
Opening and Morning Sessions

Convenors: Acacia Water, African Development Bank (AfDB), Commission on Climate Change and Development (CCD Commission), Co-operative Programme on Water and Climate (CPWC), European Investment Bank (EIB), European Commission’s Directorate-General Environment, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany (BMZ), Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany (BMU), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Global Water Partnership (GWP), German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), International Commission for the Hydrology of the Rhine Basin (CHR), International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC), International Water Association (IWA), KfW Germany, Munich Re Foundation, Rainwater Harvesting Implementation Network (RAIN), Swedish Water House Cluster Group on Climate, Water and Vulnerability, Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), Department for International Development, UK (DFID), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP, tbc), UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), United Nations University – Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), World Bank (WB), World Meteorological Organization (WMO), World Wide Fund for
Nature (WWF), World Water Council (WWC) and The World Conservation Union (IUCN)

Event Summary and Conclusions

As was stated by Mr. Anders Berntell, SIWI’s Executive Director, during the press conference just after the opening session, climate change is an important issue, reason for two days dedicated to Water & Climate, organized by the Co-operative Programme on Water and Climate (CPWC), together with BMU. The kick-off of the two days was done with a presentation by professor Nigel Arnell, of behalf of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), of the just-released IPCC Technical Paper on Water and Climate. The report states that observational records and climate projections provide abundant evidence that freshwater resources are vulnerable and have the potential to be strongly impacted by climate change, with wide-ranging consequences for human societies and ecosystems. Water supplies stored in glaciers and snow cover are projected to decline in the course of the century. Higher water temperatures and changes in extremes, including floods and droughts, are projected to affect water quality and exacerbate many forms of water pollution. There is high confidence that globally, the negative impacts of future climate change on freshwater systems are expected to outweigh the benefits. Water resources management clearly impacts on many other policy areas, e.g., energy, health, food security and nature conservation.

The IPCC presentation was followed by a discussion and panel debate, chaired by Professor Pavel Kabat, CPWC. Panellists with regional perspectives were Bill Cosgrove, Dr. Vahid Alavian, World Bank, Dr. Peter Johnston, University of Cape Town, South Africa and Dr. Avinash Tyagi, World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Switzerland. The representative from the World Bank stated that guidance is needed for incorporating the impacts of hydrologic variability and climate change in investments, while climate change is seen as more than an unprecedented environmental challenge — it is a massive development, economic and social challenge.
The issue of deterioration of hydrological networks was raised by WMO. Without data no planning is possible.
Climate change must not come at the cost of development. We need to find and support ways to reconcile the growth needs of developing countries while addressing climate change. Both must be done: mitigation, to avoid the unmanageable; adaptation, to manage the unavoidable. For adequate financing we should mobilize resources above and beyond the current ODA levels.

–   Accelerate and broaden current investments in water resources management and development
–   Focus on adaptation, but also mitigation where relevant
–   Develop an effective menu of adaptation options: knowledge and capacity building, technology, infrastructure, policies, institutions, mechanisms for risk-sharing, mechanisms for financing, enable better decision-making under uncertainty, water services delivery and resource management
–   Assessing impacts and vulnerability

Water and Climate Day 1, Opening Session

Opening Session         09:00-12:00, Room K1

Chair: Mr. Henk van Schaik, Co-operative Programme on Water and
Climate (CPWC), The Netherlands

Vulnerability

Morning Session         11:00-12:00, Room K1

Convenors: Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI) and Co-operative Programme on Water and Climate (CPWC)

Natural systems and less wealthy populations are often vulnerable to climate change, being exposed directly to impacts, but unable to respond well, particularly if changes occur very rapidly. According to the World Bank, 1.3 billion people live on less than 1 USD per day, and three-fourths depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Natural disasters have a strong impact on agriculture, ruin households, and drain fiscal resources out of developing countries – well over 100 percent of GDP for small nations. Effective adaptation needs to make vulnerable people resilient, and able to return to normal status quickly, even after a major jolt. This means dealing with other causes of vulnerability like low incomes, no title to assets, lack of education, resource depletion, governance, economic instability, disease, demographic factors and poor risk management. For industry, the critical factors are adequate infrastructure and communications, public services, scale, and access to fi nance. Essentially, providing these is the objective of sustainable development. Vulnerability assessments can be used to identify the ‘hotspots’.

Chair: Dr. Johan Rockström, Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI), Sweden

•09:00-11:00
Water and Climate Day 1, Opening Session

•11:00-12:00
Vulnerability