Natural Resources Water and Energy
A toolkit to manage cross-sectoral and transboundary impacts
The need to consider nexus sectors in renewable energy planning was first highlighted in a 2015 report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) entitled Renewable Energy in the Water Energy and Food Nexus. The report explored various synergies and trade-offs between renewable energy water and food production calling for the development of a practical assessment tool to identify quantify and assess the impact of energy policy choices in the energy-water-food-ecosystems nexus and conceptualizing the incorporation of sustainability concerns into renewable energy deployment. In the same year the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) published a methodology for assessing nexus issues in transboundary basins the first applications of which highlighted the important role of renewable energy.
Предисловие
Обеспечение устойчивого управления и доступности воды и санитарии для всех является основополагающим для достижения Повестки дня в области устойчивого развития на период до 2030 года. Данная задача сформулированная в рамках Цели устойчивого развития (ЦУР) 6 Повестки дня связана со всеми остальными ЦУР. Без должного внимания к вопросам водоснабжения и санитарии многие задачи и целевые показатели Повестки дня на период до 2030 года не будут достигнуты.
Executive summary
The risks that drought poses to communities ecosystems and economies are much larger and more profound than can be measured. The impacts are borne disproportionately by the most vulnerable people. Drought impacts are extensive across societies – they interconnect across large areas cascade through socioecological and technical systems at different scales and linger through time. A lack of awareness of such characteristics including the consistent underestimation of the cost of drought impacts can lead to ineffective response and systemic failure. As understanding of the globally networked aspects of drought and other complex risks improves the changes required to reduce risk and improve the experience of drought become possible. This Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR) Special Report on Drought 2021 aims to take a clear step forward in building that awareness.
Conclusions
The Sendai Framework makes clear that disaster risk cannot be substantially reduced unless the dynamic and systemic nature of risk is better understood and governance systems evolve to better incorporate systems-based and adaptive approaches. New tools for risk-informed decision-making are essential to allow human societies to live and thrive in uncertainty (UNDRR 2019). Much can be learned from these tools.
Актуальность для глобальных и региональных процессов
Повестка дня в области устойчивого развития на период до 2030 года (Повестка дня на период до 2030 года) и ЦУР принятые Генеральной Ассамблеей ООН в 2015 году устанавливают амбициозные цели которые должны быть достигнуты в течение 15 лет. Для достижения этих целей потребуются значительные усилия как на национальном так и на международном уровнях. В то время как ЦУР являются целями глобальными предполагается что страны будут устанавливать национальные цели и целевые показатели которые отвечают целям Повестки дня на период до 2030 года и вносят свой вклад в их достижение. В этом отношении Протокол по проблемам воды и здоровья должен сыграть ключевую роль в продвижении и практическом следовании Повестке в национальном и региональном контексте. Подход Протокола к планированию и отчетности включающий анализ исходного состояния установление целевых показателей и отчетность дает Сторонам практическую основу для трансформации целей Повестки дня на период до 2030 года в конкретные целевые показатели и действия.
Droughts: from risk to resilience
Drought poses substantial risk to societies and ecosystems around the world. The case studies reviewed in Chapter 2 illustrate the challenge that communities and governments at local to global scales face in recognizing and responding to drought risk. No two droughts are the same; no single formula to manage them is sufficient. The continuum and feedbacks among varieties of drought events and drivers impacts warnings and ongoing responses are immensely complex. These include interactions at multiple time and space scales that range from global trade to the everyday insecurities and coping activities experienced by those people most at risk. Risk assessment and management strategies are increasingly challenged by such systemic and evolving impacts of extremes variability and change across time and space.
Modernizing current understanding of drought
Droughts are among the most complex and severe climate-related hazards encountered with wide-ranging and cascading impacts across societies ecosystems and economies. They are recurrent can last from a few weeks to several years and affect large areas and populations around the world. Droughts have occurred throughout history due to natural climate variability.
Human health impacts related to water, sanitation and climate change
This chapter focuses on the human health impacts associated with changes in water quality and quantity due to climate change. Trends in morbidity and mortality are examined in the context of health risks associated with climate change and response options related to water supply and sanitation are presented.
Regional perspectives
This chapter describes how the nature and scale of water-related impacts of climate change go beyond national borders as do the potential responses. Deeper insights into priority challenges and opportunities are drawn from country- and region-level examples to demonstrate why and how opportunities for action arise in each region.
Climate change, water and sustainable development
This introductory chapter describes the objectives and scope of the report describing the main concepts related to water and climate emphasizing the crosssectoral nature of the challenges and potential responses and highlighting those that are potentially the most vulnerable.
Executive Summary
Climate change will affect the availability quality and quantity of water for basic human needs threatening the effective enjoyment of the human rights to water and sanitation for potentially billions of people. The hydrological changes induced by climate change will add challenges to the sustainable management of water resources which are already under severe pressure in many regions of the world.
Climate finance: Financial and economic considerations
This chapter addresses the current state of water and climate finance the costs of inaction versus the benefits of action and several ways to access climate finance flows to improve water management as well as water supply and sanitation services while synergistically mitigating and/or adapting to climate change.
Agriculture and food security
This chapter highlights where land–water linkages are expected to become apparent in terms of climate impacts and where practical approaches to land and water management offer scope for both climate adaptation and mitigation though agriculture. It also provides an agricultural perspective from which to further engage the United Nations Climate Change Conference in terms of water management.
Water governance for resilience to climate change
This chapter outlines legal institutional and political means to support climate change adaptation and mitigation to enhance resilience and to reduce vulnerability through more inclusive water management especially at the country level.