Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action – Action Event: Water connects adaptation and mitigation.
Key messages:
1. We have to move from the linear thinking of pollute and dispose to a circular manner of managing water in the economy to reduce, reuse and recover. We have to relearn how to farm and design urban spaces in a different climate, prompting us to innovate and an opportunity to develop more sustainably.
2. Water is being discussed every day here at the COP. This is the first time in this process, but it is no surprise, because climate change is felt through water. There is a need to bring practical examples showing how a transition to preparedness, resilient basins, and resilient cities is possible.
3. Climate change is impacting biodiversity, but it’s important to develop the capacity of natural infrastructure for building resilience.
4. While managing water upstream is important, we also need capacity downstream to manager water in a context of urban resilience. The Asian Development Bank will publish a Nature Based Solutions Practitioner’s guide in January 2020.
5. Information, inclusion and transparency are central with an important human right dimension, as climate justice is being demanded here at the COP.
Event2: Water Resilience Frontiers
What needs to be done differently to avoid disasters, tragedies, catastrophes - like the Aral Sea, Lake Chad, Cape Town?
Key messages:
1. People at the center of decision priorities
2. Political leadership at all levels
3. Attitude of self: can do!
4. Listen to stakeholders, and take them with you across
5. What we face is larger than us - work together
6. Paradigm shift to think of adaptation as not only going back to a state of the past, but to learn how to thrive in the new states that we inevitably will face
Photo from the Marrakech event.