Not only are climate change impacts felt acutely through their effects on water resources, such as flooding and droughts, water is also central in adaptation and mitigation strategies to address climate change. These linked interactions were the focus of some of the discussions at the fifth Workshop on Adaptation to Climate Change in Transboundary Basins, organized under the UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of the Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention) together with numerous partners on 14 and 15 October 2014 in Geneva.

Opening the workshop, which gathered more than 110 participants from 31 countries, including 15 countries from outside the UNECE region, and numerous basins, UNECE Executive Secretary Christian Friis Bach highlighted the importance of transboundary cooperation in addressing climate change impacts on water resources. Transboundary cooperation would be not only more cost-effective and efficient, but would enable the sharing of the benefits of adaptation measures, he noted. Mr. Bach also noted with optimism that, in some basins, climate change and climate variability had even triggered transboundary cooperation rather than led to conflict, and that “several basins even in tense political situations have developed joint adaptation strategies”.

While climate change has a major impact on water resources, most adaptation and mitigation strategies involve water resources. Actions such as the restoration of wetlands and switching to renewable energy sources all involve the sustainable management and use of water. However, adaptation and mitigation measures can contradict each other, and are not necessarily complementary. While increasing water use efficiency saves both energy and water, raising crops for biofuels can put scarce water resources under additional pressure in certain regions.

Following a presentation of the latest findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, participants at the workshop discussed their experiences during sessions dedicated to the development and implementation of transboundary adaptation strategies, basin-wide scenarios, implementation of adaptation measures and the maximization of synergies between adaptation and mitigation measures. Adaptation strategies developed in some of the worlds’ largest transboundary rivers, from the Nile to the Dniester, Neman and Danube were presented, among others.

In addition to the traditional plenary discussions, the workshop also included several interactive exercises. One had participants take on new roles and simulate negotiations on water infrastructure in the light of climate change adaptation in an imaginary river basin. In another exercise, the “Marketplace of adaptation tools”, participants discovered and discussed in small groups different types of adaptation measures and approaches from all over the world.

The workshop was held back to back with the seventh Meeting of the Task Force on Water and Climate on 13 October. The examples presented and discussed at this series of workshops and in the global network of basins are being compiled by the Task Force into a publication on lessons learned and good practices on climate change adaptation in transboundary basins, to be finalized for the seventh World Water Forum, which will be held in the Republic of Korea in April 2015.  

For more information, please visit: http://www.unece.org/env/water/tranboundary_adaptation_workshop_2014.html