13 March 2012

IIASA at the 6th World Water Forum Marseille 2012

IIASA’s Pavel Kabat and Nebojsa Nakicenovic gave keynote presentations and participated in discussions at the 6th World Water Forum 12-17 March, Marseille, France.

Prof. Kabat is also a contributor to the UN 4th World Water Development Report: Managing Water under Uncertainty and Risk, launched at the event. The Report outlines a roadmap for achieving sustainable management of freshwater resources across all sectors and regions and will inform discussions at RIO+20.

IIASA, integrated water assessment and the 7th World Water Forum

While in Marseille, IIASA’s Director is also in discussion with representatives from the World Water Council, UN Water, and the Korean Government, regarding IIASA’s potential role in conducting the scenario development and integrated water assessments in support of the 7th World Water Forum, to be held in Seoul in 2015.  

The European Year of Water

On March 12, Pavel Kabat gave a keynote presentation in the session - 2012, European Year of Water, organized by the International Office of Water and involving EU Commissioner for Climate Action, Connie Hedegaard, WMO Secretary General and UN Water Chief Michel Jarraud.

High-Level Ministerial: Water and Adaptation to Climate Change

On March 13, Prof. Pavel Kabat participated in a High-Level Ministerial roundtable on “Water and Adaptation to Climate Change - The Way Forward”, organized by the governments of Mexico, Jordan and Portugal. The roundtable was co-chaired by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Water and Irrigation of Jordan, the Director General of the National Water Commission of Mexico, and the Minister of Agriculture, Sea, Environment and Spatial Planning of Portugal. The event aimed to build consensus on the factors that affect the implementation of policy recommendations aimed at strengthening the development and implementation of water-based climate change adaptation measures.

The Roundtable concluded with the following recommendations:

  • Improving water governance both horizontally (between relevant Ministries) and vertically (between the international, national, regional and local levels) would help to mainstream climate change adaptation into broader development processes
  • Improving water management to adapt to climate change needs to be financed, and public policies should provide an appropriate framework and the rules for the private sector to participate in meeting this cost. In terms of international financing, the debate about “additionality” of financing climate-induced adaptation measures may hinder a real progress in building resilience. Rather than attributing necessary investment to climate change adaptation only, a mainstreaming of funding strategies should be sought
  • The impacts of climate change on water resources are many and varied, and there is an inevitable uncertainty on their precise extent of impacts. This uncertainty, however should not be seen as a limiting factor for deciding upon and investing into adaptation measures in water and water related sectors. Decision making under uncertainty, in combination with no regrets strategies, are key components of the enabling environment to manage our water resources

Follow-up

  • The three convening countries (Jordan, Mexico and Portugal) and other stakeholders commit to build the consensus and outcomes of this roundtable into ongoing processes, such as the UNFCCC and the Rio+20 Conference, and to report on progress at the 7th World Water Forum


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Last edited: 14 May 2013

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