Water is crucial to strengthening Nationally Determined Contributions

2020 is the year of climate action, and is as timely as it is of vital importance. Many decision-makers don’t yet fully understand the strong linkages between water and climate which means that important water-based climate solutions that the world needs are missed.

Many countries are reviewing or enhancing their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to have a fighting chance of reaching the Paris Agreement – knowledge of climate and water linkages in national frameworks such as NDCs is vital to this process. This is exactly what this webinar series is hoping to address: to ensure water is prioritised as countries review their NDCs for the Paris Agreement.

The objectives of these three webinars are focused first on building awareness of the linkages between climate and water. Moving on to developing an understanding of existing plans and tools which can support implementation of water and climate coordination. Finally, the financing mechanisms on climate and water coordination will be in focus.

It is crucial that water is part of any conversation on addressing climate change. The climate crisis has hit faster and harder than scientists predicted, meaning that we must increase global climate commitments fivefold in the coming decade. Water-related solutions can have a great  impact as we are facing a future plagued by dramatic water extremes and disasters such as floods, cyclones, and droughts. We need to re-design societies to make them more resilient and able to respond to and increasingly unpredictable future.

Two of SIWI’s experts, Håkan Tropp and David Hebart-Coleman will be speaking at the webinars. Beyond sharing our expertise on water governance and experience with facilitating projects on a local, regional and national level, in the first seminar a practical tool for identifying climate and water inter-linkages will be introduced, complemented by this water interactions checklist.

Being able to wash our hands with clean water has never been more important, emphasizing the life or death importance of water’s role in our world today. By participating in these discussions and sharing knowledge we can together work towards the water wise world we so desperately need.