High-Level Panel on Water and Climate Change
To address the issue of Adaptation to Climate Change, we will need to focus more of our attention on the ways in which we manage our water resources and water services. There is a need to compare approaches and share experiences so as to create a common understanding and view that would help push the agenda forward internationally. Planning and building for a world in which the climate is changing needs to happen now. It will only be through a combination of mitigation and adaptation measures that we will be able to sufficiently address the effects of climate change. The work of the Panel aims to increase the attention and political will for investments in adapting water management to climate change. It will formulate recommendations and present them at international policy events to promote the importance of this issue.
At the Panel event at the 5th World Water Forum, Environment Ministers and representatives from France, Turkey, the Netherlands, South Africa, Czech Republic, met together with leaders from intergovernmental organisations, local government and civil society, representing different perspectives to bridge the political divide between water and climate. The panel expressed its desire for the climate and water families to work more closely together. Jean-Louis Borloo, Minister of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Territorial Development of France, highlighted the link between climate change, water and energy, and under the authority of the Czech presidency of the EU called for immediate and concrete action on at least 10 major water and energy projects. A Ministerial Action Plan will carry the Forum’s messages on water and climate change into the UNFCCC process and COP-15 discussions.