PREPARING FOR CLIMATE CHANGE

IWRM as a Practical Approach to Climate Change Adaptation

Convenors: Cap-Net, UNDP, WMO/APFM, UNESCO-IHE, REDICA, Rhama and GWP

Stockholm 2009

Water Management, Water Security and

Climate Change Adaptation:Early Impacts and Essential Responses

TEC BACKGROUND PAPER NO. 14Published by the Global Water Partnership

Key message:• Water is the primary medium through which climate

change will impact people, ecosystems and economies

• Water resources management should therefore be an early focus for adaptation to climate change

• It does not hold all of the answers to adaptation; a broad range of responses will be needed

• But water is both part of the problem and an important part of the solution

• It is a good place to start

Outline:

• Water and adaptation: framing the issue • Climate change challenges for water

management • Climate change adaptation through better

water management • Financing issues for adaptive water resource

management • Conclusions

Framing the issue

• Actions to implement robust water management are adaption actions.

• Strengthen resilience to current climate challenges

• Builds capacity to adapt to future climate change.

Framing the issue• Overall impacts of climate change on freshwater resources

expected to be negative

• But much that is not yet well understood• Beyond increased temperatures rainfall changes to effects on

river flows and groundwater recharge• Specific challenges of snow and glacier melt• Impacts on water quality

• Understanding required of the dynamics of current variability and future climate change

• Enhanced capacity to respond to these dynamics enables better water resources management.

Projected changes in runoff by 2080 for Mexico and Central

America

Framing the issue

• Achieving and sustaining water security,

• “... harnessing water’s productive potential and limiting its destructive potential”

• a focus for adaptation strategies

• a framework for action

• CC will make it harder to achieve, sustain water security

Percentage changes in annual extreme precipitation

Climate change challenges for water management

• Understanding the physical science– Changing rainfall– Leveraged effects on runoff and streamflow– Temperature, evaporation and aridity – Impact on groundwater recharge and storage?– Dynamics of glacier and snow melt– More frequent “extremes”

• Monitoring hydrological change – the data gap

Ethiopia: Rainfall, GDP and Agricultural GDP

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rainfall variation around the mean

GDP growth

Ag GDP growth

Ethiopia: Rainfall, GDP and Agric. GDP

World Bank

-80

-60

-40

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801

982

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nta

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-30

-25

-20

-15

-10

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0

5

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rainfall variation around the mean

GDP growth

Ag GDP growth

Ethiopia: Rainfall, GDP and Agric. GDP

-80

-60

-40

-20

0

20

40

60

801

982

198

3

198

4

198

5

198

6

198

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year

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-25

-20

-15

-10

-5

0

5

10

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20

25

rainfall variation around the mean

GDP growth

Ag GDP growth

Ethiopia: Rainfall, GDP and Agric. GDP

World Bank

Climate change challenges for water management

• Social and economic dynamics– Variability and development– Disaster vulnerability – Urban challenges– Industry, trade and competitiveness– Food and agriculture, the critical challenge– Investing in reliability – Hydropower opportunities and threats– Ecosystem sacrifices

• Overall challenge : water driven structural changes

World potential and current hydropower production, 2004

Climate change challenges for water management

• Compounding factors, other drivers– Population growth– Economic development and consumption change– Technology– Urbanisation and land use change– Climate mitigation strategies!

• Uncertainty and timing a major issue

Climate change adaptation through better water management

• Water security, a first objective but also a framework for adaptation

• Water security through integrated water resources management

• Institutionalising adaptation• Investment, hard and soft• Balance and sequence – the art of adaptation

Balancing and sequencing infrastructure and managementBalancing & sequencing investments in

water infrastructure & management

Financing adaptive water resource management

‘Financing Water for All’ :-“The creation of IWRM data, plans and coordination capacity itself needs proper funding. Some of the above mentioned functions are easier to finance than others, and for certain of them (e.g. provision of ‘public goods’ such as flood control and data collection) public funding will be necessary. “

Financing adaptive water resource management

• Consistent message: • Integrated management and development of water

resources is an important activity; • However, its funding needs and financial strategies to

meet them not yet adequately addressed• Historical neglect of financing strategies for water

resources management due in large part to focus on:– short-term poverty priorities, basic water and sanitation– ‘bankable’ activities, hydropower and industrial water– Missing longer-term “public good” focus

Financing adaptive water resource management

• Core funding for water management is core funding for adaptation

• Many “public good” and “merit good” functions• Aid effectiveness principles should guide adaptation

funding• Avoid fragmentation and reduce transaction costs• Build long term capacity to cope with emerging

challenges• Funding of trans-boundary interventions a special case

– may merit specific instruments

Conclusions

• The long time horizons and great uncertainties associated with climate change call for adaptation responses that can deliver immediate benefits, while building robust, adaptive institutions designed to ensure enduring resilience

• Investments in water resources management provide just this; they are, by nature, investments in adaption

Conclusions

• A focus on achieving and sustaining water security provides immediate benefits, particularly for underserved and vulnerable poor populations, as well as greater capacity to manage future risks

• Today’s investments in water security should be seen as an explicit part of a coherent longer-term strategy for adaptation that will build a more resilient world in the future.

Conclusions• Support needed for core water resources

management information systems, institutions and investments

• Avoid fragmented initiatives that weaken core• Align with aid effectiveness principles • Offers a durable and efficient framework for

water security and mainstreaming adaptation efforts into national development plans.