MDG+10 Summit

The Water and Climate Coalition will engage actively with the process leading to the MDG+10 Summit in New York in September 2010. The MDG+10 review will comprise six plenary meetings and six interactive roundtables. Though many of the roundtables will focus on issues for which water is directly relevant (e.g. poverty, hunger, health, education), none of the Roundtables will have a specific focus on water issues. Furthermore, there currently appears to be little focus on the degree to which climate change stands to impact the ability to meet the MDGs on water and sanitation.

To address this gap in the MDG+10 Summit, the Water and Climate Coalition will work with members to deliver the following outputs:

Water Dialogues

The Water and Climate Coalition will seek to generate dialogue, debate and ultimately consensus on a range of policy principles relating to water and climate change.

The Danish Dialogues on Integrated Land and Water Resources Management for Climate Change Adaptation represented a helpful step in identifying five principles for good adaptation and intended to directly influence discussions on this topic at COP15.

These principles have proven invaluable for policy-makers, and have been especially useful in the context of the climate change negotiations as the principles are easily understood by government representatives who are not issue experts.

Yet it is clear that policy principles relating to water are lacking in many climate-relevant areas, and for the outcomes of the climate change negotiations to be sustainable it is important for certain issues to be highlighted further. Crucially, it is necessary for water considerations to extend beyond the current focus on adaptation, and also consider how mitigation actions interact with water management, especially in the case of energy production.

To this end, the WCC will co-ordinate a global multi-stakeholder dialogue on water and energy ahead of the COP16 in 2010:

Global Water and Energy Dialogue

Water management, and energy production and usage, are deeply interrelated. The impact that climate change will have on both of these areas raises a number of complex issues. Water is the primary medium through which climate change impacts will be felt by human populations and the environment, whilst energy production is one of the most significant drivers of climate change due to the emission of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels. It is of vital importance that the water and energy nexus is included within any intergovernmental agreement that tackles climate change, as any carbon reduction agreement will mean a move towards greater efficiency standards and renewable technologies, which in turn will have impacts on the use of water.

Read more...

Global Water and Energy Dialogue

Water management, and energy production and usage, are deeply interrelated, and the impact that climate change will have on both raises a number of complex issues. Water is the primary medium through which climate change impacts will be felt by human populations and the environment, whilst energy production is one of the most significant drivers of climate change due to the emission of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels.  It is of vital importance that the water and energy nexus is included within any intergovernmental agreement which tackles climate change, as any carbon reduction agreement will mean a move towards greater efficiency standards and renewable technologies, which in turn will have impacts on the use of water.

Water and Energy share a number of the same drivers on usage: demographic, economic, social and technological. Water demand is expected to increase into the next century: demand for energy is expected to increase by over 40% by 2030[1] while demand for available freshwater resources is expected to rise from 54% of available resources in 2001 to 70% in 2025, and 90% in 2025 if per capita consumption is at developed country levels[2] . This increasing demand constitutes competing pressures from a number of sectors - including agriculture, energy and domestic use. Climate change, which is predicted to alter precipitation patterns, accelerate glacial melt and change moisture availability, will exacerbate pressure on water resources further.  Both demand for energy and demand for water will also be influenced by climate change pressures.  Within a resource constrained environment, competition and potentially conflict will arise between these sectors, and mechanisms need to be in place to address these competing demands.

The dialogue on water and energy will seek to address some of these issues and, through discussion among a number of actors, develop guidelines on how to consider the water impacts of energy production, and the energy impacts of water supply systems.


[1] International Energy Agency (2009), World Energy Outlook 2009.

[2] United Nations Population Fund (2001) State of the World 2001.

MDG+10 Summit


Research and Policy Briefing

web_links

Advocacy and Lobbying

web_links

Currently there is very little information on how sustainable the MDG7 Water and Sanitation target will be if climate change is not taken into consideration. The Water and Climate Coalition will work with key partners to develop and share research into the impact of climate change on meeting the MDG7 target to halve the number of people without access to water and sanitation by 2015.

           

Based on the research the Water and Climate Coalition will develop policy recommendations, key messages and statements endorsed by all members that will be distributed as advocacy materials ahead of and during the MDG+10 Review. These materials will form the basis of focussed meetings with representatives from country delegations from North and South in the run-up to and during the MDG+10 Review.

Press and Media

web_links

Water Dialogues

web_links

The WCC will produce a press release outlining the key messages from its research to raise the profile of climate change in relation to sustainable access to water and sanitation. It will host a press conference alongside the MDG+10 Summit to draw attention to the issue, and will invite journalists to conduct interviews with coalition members.

The WCC also intends to produce a series of new media outputs focussing on water and climate change, highlighting the issues and promoting multi-stakeholder discussion on how to go forward. The new media outputs will include radio roundtable podcasts and where possible short films.

The Water and Climate Coalition will seek to generate dialogue, debate and ultimately consensus on a range of policy principles relating to water and climate change.

The Danish Dialogues on Integrated Land and Water Resources Management for Climate Change Adaptation represented a helpful step in identifying five principles for good adaptation, intended to influence the adaptation discussions for COP15.

Read more..

 

 



Please publish modules in offcanvas position.

Free Joomla! templates by AgeThemes