The climate is changing: we need to adapt now
Geneva, 4 July 2008 -- UNECE countries face inevitable climate change, experts have warned. Preventing change is not an option, but helping society to adapt to the warmer world that lies ahead offers hope of reducing the impacts to more tolerable levels.
This warning was given at a recent workshop in Amsterdam, "Water and climate change: Joining efforts to adapt". The workshop was organized under the auspices of the UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention) and its Protocol on Water and Health (www.unece.org/env/water). Under the joint leadership of the Governments of Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, with the support of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe, and in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
One speaker, Mr. Pavel Kabat, Professor of Earth System Science at the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands, informed workshop participants: "We cannot hope to avert climate change simply by mitigation, by reducing emissions of the greenhouse gases. We have to do everything we can to adapt to it as well".
Another speaker, Mr. Gheorghe Constantin of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of Romania, noted that the prospect of growing food scarcity concurrent with climatic warming meant that water demand for irrigation would greatly increase. In south-east Europe, wildlife was bound to suffer as well, as the Danube's reduced flow would not be able to meet all the added demands it would face. "Our environment is under pressure. Other ministries and governmental institutions need to recognize the importance of the environment in their policies, so that our children can continue enjoying the treasures of the Danube".
Similar concerns were voiced by the speaker from North America. Gregory Hobbs, a Justice of the Supreme Court of Colorado (the United States of America) with wide experience in the application of the law to water and other natural resources, told the workshop: "As climate change worsens, California and much of the rest of the western USA faces losing 25 per cent of its available water. We share our water among the American States and with Canada and Mexico, and we are having to learn how to adapt by finding ways to share water across borders".
The Amsterdam workshop brought together more than 60 government officials, scientists and environment experts from 19 of the countries of the UNECE region. Its task was to assess the progress achieved so far in devising ways to adapt to climate change's impacts on water and related health impacts, both nationally and across borders. Participants were invited to suggest ways to develop and refine a draft guidance document on water and adaptation to climate change which is being prepared under the UNECE Water Convention and its Protocol on Water and Health for possible adoption by Parties in 2009 and in 2010 respectively. This activity can make an important contribution to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal 7, in particular its sustainable development-related target, to integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and to reverse loss of environmental resources, and its water-related target, to reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
In the words of Mr. Joost Buntsma, senior policy adviser of the Dutch Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, "This workshop stressed the need of adaptation to climate change. Actions in the water sector cannot count on the effects of mitigation. The moment when water managers will have to make choices to deal with the increased scarcity of water resources is not far in the future, and in some countries it is already here. Transboundary cooperation is the only way to overcome future threats. This workshop was a good example of the kind of collaboration that is needed".
For more information, please contact:
Ms. Francesca Bernardini
Secretary to the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention),
Co-Secretary to the Protocol on Water and Health to the Water Convention
Phone: +41 (0) 22 917 2463
Fax: +41 (0) 22 917 0621
Email: [email protected]
or
Ms. E lla Behlyarova
Environmental Affairs Officer
Phone: +41 (0) 22 917 2376
Fax: +41 (0) 22 917 0621
Email: [email protected]
UNECE Environment, Housing and Land Management Division
Palais des Nations
CH – 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Website: http://www.unece.org/env/water/meetings/water_climate_workshop.htm
Ref:ECE/ENV/08/P12