Disappointment over Water Day

In the latest version of the negotiating text on water adaptation, the so-called Non-Paper 31, any clear references to water and its management as a vital consideration to climate change adaptation have been deleted. Participants at Water Day demonstrated that water is an essential and cross-cutting concern for climate change adaptation and mitigation across a range of different issues including livelihoods, ecosystems, trans-boundary cooperation, gender and energy requirements. The failure of negotiators to understand the role of water in adaptation strategies risks undermines the larger objectives of the climate change negotiations.

Because of climate change, droughts are becoming deeper and longer. Flood events have become more frequent and severe. Two billion people are experiencing diminishing access to clean water, while millions are dying each year from the growing incidence of water-borne diseases - which are often solvable with improved sanitation and modern infrastructure.

Hannah Stoddart of the Global Public Policy Network spoke on Monday to explain how they are readying an international campaign to push the freshwater crisis to the forefront of United Nations-managed climate negotiations. According to Stoddart, "Water is the main transmitter of climate change effects on humans and the environment." Ultimately, they are trying to convince global climate negotiators to re-evaluate their objectives and put water crisis solutions at the centre.

However, that objective currently has no hope of being realized. The Barcelona negotiations, the last in the build-up to Copenhagen, are already beset by complex, unresolved issues of politics, science, ideology and economics. As a result the fate of Kyoto's successor is not yet secure.

Source: Circle of Blue Waternews