28 November 2016

Budapest Water Summit 2016

IIASA scientists to attend the Budapest Water Summit 2016 to help shape the Budapest Statement 2016. The Summit, with the motto "Water connects”,  seeks to promote water as a source of cooperation, peace and development.

 © BWS /www.budapestwatersummit.hu

© BWS /www.budapestwatersummit.hu


The aim of the BWS 2016 is to help understand how water, a key natural resource of the 21st century, is connected to the implementation of the sustainable development agenda. 

IIASA is one of the conveners of the 2nd Budapest  Science-Technology Forum to be held at the Summit. The main objective of the Science-Technology Forum is to examine the thematic areas identified for the Budapest Water Summit 2016 from a scientific and technical point of view.


A delegation of IIASA researchers will participate at the Main Summit, the Science-Technology Forum and a side event also co-convened by IIASA.

Professor Dr Pavel Kabat, Director General and CEO of IIASA will speak at the Opening Panel of the Main Summit on Water connects the SDGs?

Dr Simon Langan, Director of the IIASA Water Program will be the keynote speaker at the Science-Technology Forum,  Session 6 on “Global sustainability assessment – How can we move forward with knowns and unknowns”. In this session Simon Langan will explain the process of finding solutions within the WFaS assessments and achievements of WFaS so far.

Dr Yoshi Wada, Deputy Director of the IIASA Water Program will contribute to the the official closing session of Science-Technology Forum titled “Turning the tide? How can scientific knowledge guide SDG policy making at different scale?”. He will detail WFaS Global assessments and how WFaS impacts on the high-level panel on Water and provide the opportunity for discussions around it.

IIASA is also co-hosting a Side-Event with close partner the Sustainable Water Futures Program (SWFP), run by Griffith University in Australia. The theme of the side event is “Bridging Solutions for a Sustainable Water Future”. 

The side event will introduce both the Sustainable Water Futures Program (SWFP) and IIASA's Water Futures and Solutions Initiative (WFaS). The side event aims to discuss the key activities of the programs, share insights into their development, provide a platform for discussion and feedback and explore opportunities for coalition building.

In the panel on “Global Water System Assessments”, Dr Yoshi Wada, will explain how WFaS’s inputs to assessing the progress of SDG needs and to understanding the complex and interlinked nature of the global water system. This session is additionally moderated by Professor Dr Pavel Kabat.

In the panel on “Water Solution Labs”, Dr Simon Langan, will contribute WFaS's insights into the discussion on how the Water Solutions Lab Network developed and provide opportunities for discussion and feedback.












Day one at the Budapest Water Summit 2016: Professor Dr Pavel Kabat, Director General and CEO of IIASA, spoke at the Opening Panel of the Main Summit on "Water connects the SDGs?" © IIASA

Summit Aims

The Summit will particularly focus on how to meet the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 6. It will provide a strategic platform to connect political decision-makers to research, technology developments, financing and public perceptions.

The Budapest Water Summit 2016 seeks to make water, a source of cooperation, peace and development, instead of being the cause of global risks and further conflicts of the 21st century. 

The Budapest Water Summit 2013 was instrumental in identifying the need for a dedicated sustainable development goal on water. The Budapest Statement, which reflected the findings and recommendations of the 2013 Summit, proved to be a key document for the formulation of the principles and targets for Sustainable Development Goal 6.

The Budapest Water Summit 2016 aims to deliver an equally important output. A Summit Statement will be written to capture the findings and recommendations of the Summit and will be adopted on 30 November, prior to the closing plenary session.  Summit participants are asked to contribute material at the Summit, however non participants are also asked to contribute via an online consultation which can be found here.

Programme Details

The main events of the Budapest Water Summit 2016 are the thematic plenary sessions with keynote participants discussing issues in the framework of six thematic plenary panels concerning the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals related to water (SDG6).

Each thematic session will be introduced by three keynote speeches to be delivered by the representative of a developing country, a developed country and an international organisation or NGO, respectively.

Keynote addresses will be followed by moderated Davos-style discussions by a series of distinguished panellists, selected with a view to ensure a proper geographical balance.

The conclusion of each thematic session will be summarized by a rapporteur, who will present the relevant findings to the closing plenary session. The Budapest Statement 2016 will be adopted on the last day of the event before the closing plenary session. The recommendations and achievements of the forums will be included in the document.

In addition to the plenary sessions, parallel stakeholder meetings will be held, namely

A Sustainable Water Solutions Expo will be also be held adjacent to the Summit. The Expo is intended to focus on sustainable, innovative, environment-friendly solutions in the field of drinking water production, water treatment and water supply.


Seventeen side events will also be held on the margins of the Budapest Water Summit 2016 with the aim of emphasising concrete issues pertaining to water, raising vital legal, ethical and political questions and providing innovative, resourceful solutions to 21st century water-related problems.


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Last edited: 30 November 2016

CONTACT DETAILS

Simon Langan

Senior Guest Research Scholar Water Security Research Group - Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program

Budapest Water Summit 2016

PUBLICATIONS

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria
Phone: (+43 2236) 807 0 Fax:(+43 2236) 71 313