Heavyweight coalition calls on COP leaders to act on climate consequences to water

The Water & Climate Coalition, which includes major global organisations such as the World Health Organisation and Unicef, has signed a letter addressed to world leaders attending COP26, urging them to act on the water-related consequences of climate change.

The letter set out the linkages between water and climate change, and asked world leaders to act decisively using the mechanisms available through the UN-Water SDG 6 Global Accelerator Framework and the UN-Water Action Decade.

Specifically, the coalition called on world leaders to:

• integrate the water and climate agendas at a national level through national adaptation and resilience planning and at the regional level, through transboundary cooperation;

• inform the decision-makers of today and tomorrow on the benefit of integrated water and climate action through video messages and events that the coalition will organise, including at UNFCCC COP26 and COP27, UNCCD COP15, the Planet Budapest summit as well as in preparation of the 2023 UN Conference on Water;

• support capacity-building efforts to help people and institutions to deliver the required adaptation and resilience action in synergy with the capacity-building component of the SDG 6 Global Acceleration;

• promote and finance global water monitoring, information and stock take systems to provide timely knowledge about the current and future water availability and quality levels at the global, regional and local levels;

• nominate technical and scientific experts to work with us in the UN-Water Accelerator Framework for SDG 6 in securing water availability of appropriate quality to ensure the well-being of humans and the functioning of ecosystems;

• promote technical, political and scientific cooperation at the basin, regional and global levels and make available political and financial support for basin and regional cooperation on adaptation and integrate capacity development;

• make sure everyone has access to timely warnings about water-related disasters to help save lives and protect livelihoods through strengthening the political agenda for recognising disaster risk warnings as a global public good;

• commit in present and future Nationally Determined Contributions, to considering the water dependency and implications of mitigation targets;

• inform and support development efforts towards community resilience, helping people and institutions engage in the required adaptation and resilience action in an integrated and inclusive manner;

• promote a proactive approach to flood and drought management based on three pillars – monitoring, forecasting and early warning, vulnerability and impact assessment, and preparedness, mitigation and response; and

• support the integration of data and projections on climate and water risks into the design of resilient infrastructure, including water and sanitation services, especially for the most vulnerable.

The coalition members are: Global Water Partnership; World Meteorological Organisation; Food and Agricultural Organisation; United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation; World Health Organisation; International Fund for Agricultural Development; UN-Water; United Nations Environment Programme; United Nations Children’s Fund; United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and United Nations University.