Focus on Water and Climate Change
15 October, 2018
Water plays a pivotal role in how the world mitigates and adapts to the effects of climate change. Preparing for and adapting to new climate realities will be a defining challenge of the 21st century.
On 8 October the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) launched a new report on ‘Global Warming of 1.5ºC’ and announced that limiting global warming to 1.5ºC would require rapid, farreaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society. With clear benefits to people and natural ecosystems, limiting global warming to 1.5ºC compared to 2ºC could go hand in hand with ensuring a more sustainable and equitable society.
Responding to the challenges of climate change impacts on water resources requires, not only rapid, but also adaptation strategies at the local, regional, national and global levels.
In line with this, UN-Water has recently selected the theme of “Water and Climate Change” for the World Water Day campaign and the World Water Development Report in 2020.
During the the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the UN-Water Expert Group on Water and Climate Change is also organizing an event, led by FAO, to present its current work.
The IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5ºC is available at http://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/