INBONewsletter n° 24 - May 2016
2
COP21
30November - 12December 2015 - Paris
342 organizations worldwide have signed
the Paris Pact on Water and Adaptation to Climate Change
in the basins of rivers, lakes and aquifers
As part of the
”Lima-Paris Action
Agenda”,
Peru, supported by France,
organized on the 2
nd
of December
2015,
the official day on ”Water
andClimateChangeAdaptation”of
the COP21 in Paris,
under the joint
chairmanship of
Mrs. Ségolène
Royal,
FrenchMinister for theEnviron-
ment, Energy and the Sea, Head of the
French Delegation to the COP21, and
Mr. Manuel Pulgar-Vidal,
Peruvian
Minister for the Environment, organizer
of theCOP20 in Lima in 2014.
So, for the first time in theCOPhis-
tory, the issues of freshwater are
officially taken into account!
”TheParisPact onwaterandadap-
tation to climate change in the
basins of rivers, lakes and aqui-
fers” was presented at the day
opening.
”The Paris Pact is the first concrete
commitment of theCOP21:We call all
water stakeholders to join it. (...). This
pactwill giveaboost andcanbeconsi-
dered as an innovative instrument”,
Mrs. Ségolène Royal said, when she
formally signed the document along-
side the PeruvianMinister for the Envi-
ronment and Mrs. Charafat Afailal,
Minister inchargeof water inMorocco,
the country that will be the organizer of
theCOP22 in 2016.
Mr. FrançoisHollande, President of the
French Republic, also declared at the
official closing session of the Action
Day, this last Saturday, 5
th
December:
”It was important that initiatives be
launched here in Paris (...) there is the
Paris Pact for water which gathers
342 organizations and 87 Countries
(…)”.
Drafted by the
International Network
of Basin Organizations (INBO)
on
the request of theorganizers, the ”Paris
Pact” aims at a global mobilization of
the basin organizations and all other
stakeholders involved, multilateral and
international organizations, govern-
mental administrations, local authori-
ties, companies and all economic sec-
tors, the civil society, for starting
without anydelay theactionsneeded to
adapt freshwater management to the
effects of climate change:
all organi-
zations involved in integrated river
basinmanagement were invited to
sign this ”Pact”.
Thus todate,
342organizationshave
already signed the ”Paris Pact” in
87 countries,
which shows that
everywhere it greatlymobilized all sta-
keholders in water resources manage-
ment, because
we have to act
quickly before it is too late!
Mrs. Royal has encouraged all water
stakeholders to sign thePact and ”thus
to add their tributary flows to swell the
mainstream”.
Mr. Jean-François Donzier, INBO
Secretary General,
presented the
Pact during the official day on ”Water
and adaptation toclimaticchange” and
reminded that climate change is
already affecting and will increasingly
affect the quantity and quality of fresh-
water and aquatic ecosystems, espe-
cially through the intensity and greater
frequency of extreme hydrological
events, such as floods and droughts:
”In these perspectives, the basins
are natural areas where water
flows on the surface and in the
subsoil: appropriate water resour-
ces management and adaptation
should be organized at that level”.
The ”Paris Pact” includes two compo-
nents:
part one
is describing the
context and providing general princi-
ples for adaptation toclimatechange in
basins, and
part two
is listing the
commitments tobemadeby thesigna-
tories to organize adaptation to climate
change and take appropriatemeasures.
The action of basin organizations and
all other stakeholders involved is
essential to increase the resilience of
our societies to the risks facing water
resources in the context of climate
change.
The round table,
organized during
this ”Water and Adaptation” Day and
facilitated by INBO, allowed presenting
real examples of adaptation projects in
different basins in China (Hai River
Basin), India (aquifer management),
Mexico (Mexico Valley), South Ame-
rica (Ecocuencas project), the Senegal
River (OMVS), the Niger River (NBA),
the Congo River and its tributaries
(CICOS) and Morocco (ABH), as well
as theMediterraneanWater Information
Systems and
the platform of pilot
basins to test adaptation mea-
sures, led byUNECE and INBO.
These projects show that
we can act quickly if the
stakeholders are getting
mobilized!
Mrs. SégolèneRoyal andMr.Manuel Pulgar-Vidal
signing thePact© IOWater - C.Runel
UN CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE
CONFÉRENCE DES NATIONS UNIES
SUR LES CHANGEMENTS CLIMATIQUES
