COP16 proved to be a good meeting for water. For the first time, “climate people” and “water people” seemed to reach if not a mutual understanding then at least a first attempt to start discussions on how the two perspectives can be merged. The highlight came on Saturday December 4th when six countries came up with a formal proposal to start addressing water under the scientific advisory body under the climate convention.
For the Water and Climate Coalition COP16 proved to be two busy weeks filled with meetings with negotiators, partner organisations and interested parties. In addition, the Coalition arranged several public events. Below is an attempt to report back from these sessions.

Side Event Dec 6th: Water, Climate and Development: Linking up development agendas and putting water security first.
The Water and Climate Coalition, the Global Water Partnership and the Heinrich Böll Stiftung organised the joint side event “Water, Climate and Development: Linking up development agendas and putting water security first”. Moderated by Ms Letitia Obeng, Chair of the Global Water Partnership, the six speakers on the panel shared their different views on meeting the water, development and climate challenges.
- Mr Bai Mass Taal, Executive Secretary of AMCOW, presented an intivitative by GWP and AMCOW which will support African countries in adapting to climate change.
- Mr Anders Berntell of SIWI and the Water and Climate Coalition presented the Coalition’s work and laid out the proposed work programme on water and climate.
- Ms Ursula-Shäfer Preuss, Vice President of ADB brought an Asian perspective on climate change, highlighting the challenges of rapid urbanisation and growing cities.
- Mr Rolando Castro of FAN stressed the need to enable and preserve healthy ecosystems in order to build resilience.
- Ms Kulthuom Omari of HBF  spoke on the gender perspectives on water.
- Mr Aart van der Horst from the Dutch delegation brought insights and perspective from inside the negotiations.

The event drew an audience of close to 100 people and provoked an interesting debate on diverse water and development issues. Questions from the audience included concerns on private sector and trade interest in water, questions on how to meet the need for capacity building on water change, and input on how to spread the word on the Coalition’s proposed work programme.


The Side Event panel.

Press Conference, Dec 6th: “Putting Water Security First”.
The press confrence arranged on Monday December 6th presented the Water and Climate Coalition with an opportunity to present its work to an audience of journalists present at COP16 in Cancun. The panel of speakers from the coalition made efforts to explain the linkages between water resources and climate change. Two days earlier, on Saturday 4 December, six countries at COP16 had made a formal request to start discussions on water under the SBSTA – the body which provides scientific and technical support to the climate convention. This development which is much welcomed by the Coalition was also commented upon during the press conference. Prior to the press conference a press release had been sent out. 


Karin Lexén and Hannah Stoddart at the press conference.

High-level panel, December 8th
On behalf of the Water and Climate Coalition, Mr Anders Berntell of SIWI gave a presentation at the high-level panel which marked the closing of the Dialogs on water and climate. The session, which was held in the Mexican pavilion at COP16 presented an impressive line-up of high profile speakers within the global water, environment, investment and development communities.
Mr Anders Berntell spoke on water as being the blood stream of our planet, fundamental to all functions of society. He also stressed the need for putting water on the global climate agenda and expressed the Coalition’s support for the proposal put forward by six countries at COP16 earlier this week to start a discussion on water under the climate convention.
Other speakers further highlighted the cross cutting nature of water and called for strengthening of institutions, enhanced focus on capacity building and more research and data – measures which would enable the water community to better face the challenges connected to climate change.

By: Lovisa Selander, Stockholm International Water Institute

Världens länder är i Cancún, Mexico för att fortsätta förhandlingarna om ett nytt internationellt avtal . Målsättningen med mötet, COP 16, kan tyckas lågt. ”att ta några steg framåt” till ett rättsligt bindande avtal. Detta kommer att kräva kompromisser, både av i- och av u-länderna. Därför är det anmärkningsvärt och högst obegripligt att Japan redan under de inledande förhandlingarna uttalar att ”Japan will not inscribe its target under the KP on any conditions or under any circumstance”. Vilket betyder att Japan sa att de inte kommer att föra in deras mål (för minskning av växthusgasutsläpp) i Kyotoprotokollet under ”några som helst förutsättningar eller under några som helst omständigheter”. Uttalandet vittnar tydligt om Japan inte tänker förhandla om en andra åtagande period under Kyotoprotokollet som tar slut 2012.
Hur förhandlar man gentemot en sådan part? Eller är det helt enkelt så att Japan lägger det politiska spelets ribba så pass lågt att vem som helst kommer att bli imponerad om Japan senare glider över 1.85 men en lätt darrning på ribban.

FN flaggan och den Mexikanska flaggar utan för konferenscentret Moon Palace i Cancún

Det förhandlas inte enbart om Kyotoprotokollets vara eller icke-vara. Parallella förhandlingar förs inom en massa andra områden här i Cancún. Skogsfrågor förhandlas om, finansieringsfrågor förhandlas om, rapporteringssystem och institutioner och jordbruk förhandlas om. Men det förhandlas inte om vatten. Trots att klimatförändringar i mångt och mycket är förändringar av den hydrologiska cykeln; mer regn, mindre regn, glaciäravsmältning och ökenspridning, försämringar av färskvatten kvalité och påverkan av jordbruksproduktion. Tänk om man verkligen skulle ta och uppmärksammade detta, uppmärksammade vart problemen ligger. Då blir det ju enklare att vida rätt åtgärder. 

Flera länder håller med. De märker redan nu hur deras länder drabbas av klimatförändringar och att vidta åtgärder inom vattenområdet har blivit en självklar och prioriterad fråga för dem. Att tydliggöra vattnets roll inom de internationella klimatförhandlingarna skulle vara ett viktig steg i att vidta åtgärder där problemet ligger.

Jag hoppas att budskapet bokstavligt talat börjat sipprar in till förhandlarna i Moon Palace…

by Hanna Wolf, Swedish Water House i Cancún, Mexico

This week, when the Cancun negotiations are supposed to move into top gear, I feel it is relevant to give some thoughts to how climate change (or even the perception of it) may affect transboundary water management. While this is certainly not the focus of discussions or negotiations in Mexico, it is an important area that needs to be further understood.

Much of the knowledge we have, as well as existing agreements/regimes over transboundary water are increasingly volatile because of increased water use. Also, they are becoming  unworkable due to the perception that climate change is altering the basic parameters for water governance. Whether correct or not, perceptions of climate change are undermining existing agreements.

According to the Oregon State Database on transboundary water agreements over the period of the last 200 years, riparian countries have signed nearly 400 water-sharing agreements. While that is a positive sign one  key question is, however, dual: to what extent are these agreements actually contributing to meaningful cooperation, and how can they be kept functioning particularly in the face of climate change induced uncertainty? Many of these agreements are essentially rigid instruments that are modifiable only under certain limited conditions. Thus, it is not only that we need functional agreements on transboundary waters; we also need the agreements to be sustainable, lasting and progressive Unfortunately, more than 40% of present agreements do not even mention ‘uncertainty’ in their texts.

Transboundary waters need to be dealt with. However, this is not an easy process. The increasing competition and the difficulties emanating from the altering parameters caused (or so claimed) by climate change are creating further uncertainties. Agreements on transboundary waters are in general not adapted to deal with uncertainties and a changing world, but are often characterised by rigid volumetric allocations of the resource, based on averages of a historical pattern. The keyword that is lacking is flexibility. States are not prone to  sign agreements with uncertain consequences for them in the future. So even though we may know now that agreements should be more focused on sharing waters in percentage terms rather than in cubic metres, it  does not mean it will be easy to get there. 

To address these issues the Uppsala Centre for Sustainable Development, Stockholm International Water Institute (www.siwi.org) and Peace and Development Research at School of Global Studies at Gothenburg University have joined forces to research this important area. The basic thrust of the research (funded by Sida-SAREC) will focus on the question: how are Transboundary Waters to be governed given the increasing demands on global water resources and the increasing perceptions of a Global Climate Change?

The research, which starts in 2011, will draw upon cases from Africa (Nile and Niger), Middle East (Jordan Basin and Asia (Mekong and Ganges-Brahmaputra).
While some countries recently have called for the water issues to be more prominent in the Cancun meeting it is receiving less attention than it should. Knock on effects of climate change (or the mere perception of it) such as the one described above merits more attention in the future. It is important also to address future scenarios and adaptation options  at river basin level . Sweden is currently financing a UNEP led project to address such questions in the Nile Basin. Such regional analysis coupled with political and governance research will equip us better for the challenges that are coming.

by Dr Anders Jägerskog, Associate Professor of Peace and Development, School of Global Studies, Göteborg University and;
Senior Programme Manager, Water Resources
Regional Team for Economic and Environmental Development (REED), Sida
Embassy of Sweden, Nairobi, Kenya

Chefen för FN:s klimatförhandlingar, Yvo de Boer meddelade igår att han avgår till sommaren. Det är inte utan att jag förstår honom. Efter år av tufft jobb fick han i december inte se mycket till resultat. Kanske kan en ny chef för förhandlingarna leda till att vissa låsningar mellan stater kan lösas.

Genom det enorma misslyckandet i Köpenhamn har även förhandlingarna köpt sig viss tid. Kanske kan ett år av ytterligare förhandlingar ge möjligheter till ett bättre avtal än vad vi hade kunnat få i december. Kanske? - Så vill jag tro och hoppas, men vem vet, media verkar vara trötta på klimatförhandlingarna. Internet översvämmas av konspirationsteorier mot IPPC. Fokus är där mer tillbaka på om klimatförändringarna är verkliga än på den centrala frågan vad vi måste göra för att stoppa klimatförändringarna. Dessutom kanske vi inte har tid, beroende på hur klimatförändringarna kommer slå, borde inte alla resurser tillgängliga sättas in så snabbt som möjligt på att minska utsläpp och ge de fattigaste länderna möjlighet att anpassa sig?

Men nu är det som det är, de Boer avgår, och jag hoppas att delegaterna för nästa klimatförhandling kan enas om konstruktiva avtal som räddar världen från de värsta farhågorna i IPPCs rapporter. Vi som arbetar med vattenfrågorna kommer följa förhandlingarna fram till Mexico noga och försöka bidra så gott vi kan med vår kunskap. Klustergruppen för klimat kommer ordna ett antal möten och seminarier kring vatten och klimatfrågorna. Ett annat exempel är Stakeholder Forums och SIWIs projekt GPPN – där vi vill främja en dialog mellan de som är aktiva inom klimatdebatten med de som är aktiva inom vattenbranschen. Kunskap från båda dessa ”läger” är nödvändiga för ett lyckat avtal i Mexico.

av Anneli Nordling, klustergruppsledaren, Klimat, vatten och sårbarhet

With the new year and new challenges comes also new staff. I’m Hanna Wolf and I started last week here at the Swedish Water House and I will be focusing on water and climate. My background is from both the government side and from the NGO-side working with climate and development so I’m sure I will enjoy working here.

Swedish Water House kick started its activities in 2010 with strategic and practical planning. I can promise water will definitely be put on the climate agenda this year.

Hannah Stoddart from Stakeholder Forum came over from London to discuss how to move on after COP 15 and strategise towards COP 16 in our joint project, the GPPN (http://gppn.stakeholderforum.org/). Inspired from last year’s success we can promise a Water Day also in 2010 that will identify the cross-cutting impacts of water on a diversity of livelihoods, sectors and ecosystems.

Swedish Water House will of course also continue being the meeting place for dialogue within the international policy development and cooperation in the water and development field with seminars and workshops. Furthermore the cluster groups will keep working on their different focus areas; Water & Rights, Climate, Water & Vulnerability and Swedish Environmental Flows Initiative. Are you interested to join, please read more about the cluster groups here.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy 2010 and a warm welcome to network with us at the Swedish Water House!
 

By the keyboard,
Hanna Wolf