United Nations urges greater emphasis on water's role in climate negotiations

Climate change negotiators need to up their attention to the role of water to achieve their aims according to this year’s United Nations World Water Development Report launched yesterday – World Water Day Sunday

“It is imperative that the climate change community, and climate negotiators in particular, give greater attention to the role of water and recognise its central importance in addressing the climate change crisis,” the report said.

It went on to assert that it was arguably more important to promote the value of measures to reduce harm or exploit opportunities to benefit from climate change – so-called adaptation, and of interventions to curb sources or grow sinks for greenhouse gases – mitigation.

Options for mitigation, the report said, were available in every major water related sector but “remain largely unrecognised,”

The report emphasised the importance of increasing the profile of water considerations “to develop concrete water-related project proposals for inclusion in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and to strengthen the means and capacities to plan, implement and monitor water-related activities in NDCs.”