Working together for water: transboundary adaptation to climate change

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Image text: DANUBE WATCH

Working together for water:
transboundary adaptation to climate change

Danube countries are showing others how to develop strategies to address climate change at the transboundary basin level.

Floods, droughts, or all the same? Climate adaptation strategies require
complex planning and inter-sectoral approaches. © Yaroslav Bulych

Climate change introduces additional challenges to water management, as impacts such as increased risks of floods and droughts will be widespread in the future. Transboundary cooperation helps to prevent negative effects of unilateral adaptation measures while maximising the effectiveness of adaptation strategies by sharing data, enlarging the planning space and locating measures where they can have the best effect. Therefore, stronger cooperation between riparian countries in developing and implementing adaptation strategies and measures is crucial.

The Climate Change Adaptation Strategy for the Danube was adopted in December 2012 – so far the only strategy developed for a transboundary basin. As a result, the experience of the ICPDR in developing such a strategy is highly valuable for other transboundary basins around the world. In June 2013, the ICPDR presented its lessons learnt at the ‘Fourth Workshop on Water and Adaptation to Climate Change in Transboundary Basins: Transboundary Climate Change Adaptation Serving Multiple Purposes’. Held in Geneva and organised by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourse and International Lakes (UNECE Water Convention) in cooperation with several partner organisations, the workshop included a discussion of the Danube during a special basin exercise.

Serving multiple purposes. Previous workshops – not to mention experience on the ground – have shown that climate change adaptation should serve a wide array of purposes in order to get sufficient support to implement measures. Getting a variety of sectors involved, therefore, is vital, requiring knowledge of the interests, concerns and motivations of stakeholders to be able to explain ‘what’s in it for them’.

A GLOBAL NETWORK OF BASINS


The ‘Fourth Workshop on Water and Adaptation to Climate Change in Transboundary Basins’ was organized in Geneva on 25-26 June 2013 in the context of the global network of basins working on climate change adaptation in a transboundary context. Apart from the Danube, it currently includes the Amur/Argun/ International Dauria Protected Area, Chu Talas, Congo, Dniester, Drin, Mekong, Meuse, Neman, Niger, Rhine, Sava and Senegal Basins, as well as the Northern Sahara aquifer system.

This network is based on the programme of pilot projects on climate change adaptation in transboundary basins, implemented by UNECE and partners since 2010. It aims to enable the comparison of methodologies and approaches, foster exchange of experience and promote a shared vision between the participating basins.

The creation of a global network of basins working on adaptation to climate change in transboundary basins was an outcome of the sixth World Water Forum and its results will be presented to the next World Water Forum in 2015 in South Korea. It is also part of the programme of work for 2013-2015 of the UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention).

The workshop was organised a few months after the Convention became global. The UNECE Water Convention is a unique framework for supporting transboundary cooperation in adaptation. Since 1992, the Convention has played a crucial role in the pan-European region in supporting the establishment and strengthening of cooperation. Building on the successes achieved, the Parties to the Convention amended it in 2003 to open it up to non-UNECE countries. Having received the necessary number of ratifications, the amendments to the UNECE Water Convention opening it for accession to all United Nations Member States entered into force on 6 February 2013. It is expected that non-UNECE countries will be able to accede to the Convention at the beginning of 2014.

As a result, the workshop brought together participants from the water sector as well as representatives of the agriculture, hydropower and industry sectors. A leading farmer from India, for instance, demonstrated that farmers are more willing to use water responsibly if they have a better understanding of water availability, water use and the effects of climate change by monitoring water resources themselves.

The workshop also highlighted examples of successful cooperation between stakeholders and riparian countries in adaptating to climate change. These successful endeavours included the Senegal, Rhône and Neman Basins, where stakeholders from different sectors jointly discussed vulnerability assessments and possible adaptation measures. In addition, El Salvador and Honduras showed how climate change impacts can be addressed by restoring ecosystems and helping communities improve their farming methods.

During the market place session in the workshop, participants could learn more about various modelling, communication and decision-making tools such as the tipping point approach, which forms the basis of the Dutch adaptive Delta management, and the Climate Vulnerability Index, which has been used to assess vulnerability to climate impacts and direct actions for adaptation in Mongolia.

Call for stronger cooperation. The basins represented at the workshop all confirmed the importance of transboundary cooperation in water management, particularly within a larger regional context. Although transboundary cooperation is often hindered by simple inconsistencies of data or by diplomatic challenges, examples such as the Dniester and Neman projects show that progress can be made and that climate change can even serve as a driver for better cooperation in general.

The UNECE Water Convention will continue to serve as a useful framework for climate change adaptation, and will do so on a global level. Through an institutional platform such as the UNECE Water Convention, countries can have access to a number of tools that allow them to build capacity to adapt to climate-associated challenges. The pilot projects that have been undertaken through the UNECE’s programme of pilot projects on water and adaptation to climate change are starting to generate a number of valuable lessons, which will be gathered in a collection of lessons learnt and good practices, and presented to the next World Water Forum in 2015 in South Korea.

For more information or to see all the workshop presentations, please visit the UNECE website:
http://www.unece.org/env/water/tranboundary_adaptation_workshop_2013.html

Els Otterman is the Consultant for the climate change activities of the UNECE Water Convention, and
Sonja Koeppel is the Coordinator of the climate change activities of the UNECE Water Convention.