A very successful event was the side event “Cities of the future: Integrated urban water management”, held on Thursday 11 December by GWP, among others. Mr. Kalanithy Vairavamoorthy, expert in urban water systems and TEC member, was the key speaker. “We have done things wrongly…It’s not about producing one grade of water quality, but many grades of quality and trying to match these different qualities for different uses”, was one of the main messages he conveyed.
After the conference, the Peruvian Minister of Housing, Construction and Sanitation expressed the willingness of this Ministry to become a GWP partner and asked Dr. Kalanithy to design the basis of a programme with GWP and the World Bank on Integrated Urban Water Management for Peru.
Knowledge exchange on water in the context of South-South cooperation was also promoted in an event organized by GWP, Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS), African Minister’s Council on Water (AMCOW) and Caribbean Community (CARICOM) with support from CDKN. Actions as well as lessons learned within the WACDEP were shared among Africa, South America, Central America and the Caribbean, strengthening collaborative bonds. Building on WACDEP, a future collaboration among Africa, the Caribbean and Central America as well as potential funding option to support and to extend the ‘South-South Knowledge Exchange’ were explored in connection to the event.
New Partnerships
Potential collaborative and funding partnerships for supporting GWP country adaptation needs and priorities were developed, especially for Central and South America with Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Organization of American States (OAS), Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (OCTA), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and L'Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD).
GWP followed the outcomes of the negotiations in relation to different work streams and working groups under the UNFCCC, such as the National Adaptation Plans, the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage, the Adaptation Committee, and participated in the Nairobi Work Programme 8th Focal Point Forum in discussions on addressing adaptation gaps through the NWP.
GWP also scoped the work on climate finance and contributed to discussions on the operationalization of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), designed to finance sustainable development. Before COP20, GCF aimed to target $10 billion and it reached nearly $10.2 billion.
The GWP delegation was chaired by Ms. Nicole Bernex, Emeritus Chair to GWP Peru, TEC Member, and Academic Director of CIGA-PUCP. Mr. Bai Mass Taal, Executive Secretary of AMCOW was Deputy Head of the GWP delegation.
Paving the Way for COP21
After two weeks of intense activity, the 20th Conference of the Parties (COP 20) came to an end on 14th December in Lima, Peru. The negotiations by about 190 countries on an international treaty to combat climate change and handle its impacts resulted in a basic draft agreement - the Lima Call for Climate Action - which will serve as the basis for a global climate treaty to be signed in Paris next year at COP 21.
The Lima draft was announced Sunday by the COP20 President - the Peruvian Minister of the Environment (GWP Partner). It calls on richer countries to help poorer ones finance their goals in the fight against climate change and determines different responsibilities for developed and developing countries, the details of those responsibilities yet to be determined.