Water Resources Highlighted @ COP21

This year’s United Nations Climate Conference in Paris has had a lot to deal with and discuss, but one thing that we are all very happy about is that water is very visible; more so than at any previous summit.

This is vital because it means that public officials are finally starting to grasp the fact that climate change or global warming will affect the distribution and timing of water via rainfall; droughts and heavy downfalls will occur more often and this will result in wet areas becoming wetter and dry areas becoming drier. This is already being felt in various regions globally.

Apart from climate plans submitted by each country attending the climate summit ahead of the conference, known as “intended nationally determined contributions,” or INDCs, there is also the Paris Pact, which has been signed by in excess of three hundred national and international organisations from 87 countries.

The INDCs describe domestic actions countries are going to take to reduce carbon pollution and adapt to climate change, and the Paris Pact targets climate adaptation at catchment area level and endeavours to develop the knowledge, technical capacity, and practices that will cushion society against an uncertain ecological future.

Marc Leblanc, a hydrologist at the University of Avignon and coordinator of a UN groundwater assessment program said, “So far at the international level we have barely considered water resources in planning for climate change. Scientists have conducted many diagnostics on the question, but the results from these studies now need to turn into agreements, policies, and implementation strategies at the international level. The Paris Pact is one of the first attempts to address this.”