COP15: Where's the Water?

Via image.net

After months of build-up, it’s finally showtime. Despite the excitement leading up to COP15, the global water community does not seem happy. As it turns out, climate change is about more than just carbon emissions. Who knew?

The majority of mutterings indicate displeasure around the fact that water does not appear on the official COP 15 agenda, even after pressure from lead-up events, such as IWA’s Water & Energy Conference (held in Copenhagen) and World Water Week (held in Stockholm). Both events diligently brought awareness of the role of water in climate change with statements directed at COP15.

“Water is a key medium through which climate change impacts will be felt,” states the World Water Week’s resulting Stockholm Message (pdf), urging cooperation between climate, water and wider development communities.

“Legislators must understand the link between water and energy and act now to address global challenges including climate change,” notes the IWA statement (pdf).

A few weeks ago, after an OCETA-led stakeholder dialogue on strategic water opportunities in Ontario, Dr. Zafar Adeel, director of the UNU International Network on Water, Environment and Health, told me something similar—that excluding water management from COP15 talks is a mistake. “Even within the UN system there’s an understanding that there’s a missed opportunity with not paying attention to water,” he said. “Strategically, it’s a mistake. Water is a main channel through which climate change impacts are going to affect the world.”

Another issue, said Adeel, is that the UN appears to be addressing water as a “sector.”

“The negotiators are shortsighted in considering water a separate sector,” he said, explaining that anything to with water seems to fall into a box, rather than in its rightful place as a natural resource “closely built into the feedback loops for climate change.”

The links and loops that bind water to climate change are evident. Why are so many of us still trying to find solutions in silos?