{"id":5504,"date":"2023-01-05T12:13:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-05T03:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/?p=5504"},"modified":"2023-12-22T12:16:55","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T03:16:55","slug":"water-is-key-to-climate-action-and-sustainable-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/sdgs-2\/water-is-key-to-climate-action-and-sustainable-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Water Is Key to Climate Action and Sustainable Development"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

UN 2023 Water Conference<\/a> <\/strong>will be the first of its kind since 1977<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Viewpoint by Gilbert F. Houngbo*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article was issued by Africa Renewal<\/a> and is being republished with their permission.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NEW YORK (IDN) \u2014 <\/em>Water flows through all major global issues; from health to hunger, gender equity to jobs, education to industry, disasters to peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For that reason, it has to be made an integral part of all global meetings to do with making the world a better, safer and fairer place. Right now, this is not the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development<\/a>\u2014<\/em><\/strong>the primary framework of the international effort to eradicate extreme poverty\u2014<\/em><\/strong>the success of every one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) depends on a well-functioning global water cycle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gilbert F. Houngbo. Source: Africa Renewal<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At COP27, the fact that water and climate change are inextricably linked was reflected in the format of the event, but even so, water is still not a stand-alone topic for regular review and reporting in the COP process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we fight climate change and strive to build a better world, water must be embedded in landmark global frameworks, including the Paris Agreement, 2030 Agenda, Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, Committee on World Food Security and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without that integration, we will fail to get a grip on the major crises that threaten life on Earth and the hope of a better tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the case of climate change, water must be at the heart of our plans to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of more extreme and erratic weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, the protection, restoration and expansion of water-related ecosystems is essential for safeguarding biodiversity and capturing carbon from the atmosphere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, water and sanitation systems\u2014<\/em><\/strong>existing and new\u2014<\/em><\/strong>must be designed to withstand an increasingly hostile context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The writing is on the wall.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In only 20 years, flood-related disasters have increased by 134 per cent, and the number and duration of droughts by 29 per cent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Against this backdrop, around 2 billion people have no access to safe drinking water and 3.6 billion live without a safe toilet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly, progress towards achieving SDG 6\u2014<\/em><\/strong>water and sanitation for all by 2030\u2014<\/em><\/strong>is seriously off-track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have no choice but to act faster and smarter, across sectors, to solve the water crisis for the sake of every aspect of sustainable development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Water-related climate mitigation and adaptation should be seen as a new \u201csocial contract\u201d between ourselves and future generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our own lives, we can all be more aware of our water footprint and be less wasteful of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the individual level, this will be a small price to pay to protect our great-grandchildren. However, the cost to the global system will be considerable yet essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financial resources must be better targeted, and new funding mobilized, towards the infrastructure and systems needed to build and maintain water-related services across society and the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are encouraging signs.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the national level, more attention is already being paid to water as countries make national plans to adapt to the impacts of climate change and reduce emissions. I welcome this and encourage all countries to follow suit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this is too large an issue for nation states to tackle individually. The multilateral system exists precisely for the purpose of orchestrating a response to complex global challenges just like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Government of Egypt, which hosted COP27, launched the \u201cAction for Water Adaptation and Resilience\u201d designed to make integrated water and climate action standard practice in SDG-related actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a welcome signal that decision-makers are starting to recognize water for what it is: a medium of resilience, a problem-solver and a primary connector between all the major challenges we face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Co-hosts of the UN 2023 Water Conference\u2014<\/em><\/strong>Tajikistan and the Netherlands\u2014<\/em><\/strong>are urging the world to unite around water to follow an approach that is \u201caction-oriented,\u201d \u201cinclusive\u201d and \u201ccross-sectoral\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need to take the momentum built up at COP27<\/a> (United Nations Climate Conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt)<\/em> and convert it into a new Water Action Agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s down to everyone to solve the water crisis. And that can only be done when water is on everyone\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Gilbert F. Houngbo is the Chair of UN-Water and<\/em> Director-General of <\/em>the International Labour Organization (ILO)<\/a><\/em>. <\/em><\/strong>[IDN-InDepthNews \u2013 05 January 2023]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo credit: UNICEF\/Kenya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Original link: https:\/\/www.un.org\/africarenewal\/magazine\/december-2022\/solving-water-crisis-key-climate-action-and-sustainable-development<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UN 2023 Water Conference will be the first of its kind since 1977 Viewpoint by Gilbert F. Houngbo* This article was issued by Africa Renewal and is being republished with their permission. NEW YORK (IDN) \u2014 Water flows through all major global issues; from health to hunger, gender equity to jobs, education to industry, disasters to peace. For that reason, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5505,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,9,16,32,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment-resources-energ","8":"category-goal6","9":"category-news","10":"category-regions","11":"category-sdgs-2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5504"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5506,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5504\/revisions\/5506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}