Work by water researchers, including in the IPCC and the UN’s World Water Development Report 2020, has shown that changes in global water cycles are the bearers of much of climate change’s bad news. As the planet warms – due mostly to the energy sector – we are already witnessing the effects of too much or too little water at the wrong place and time.
Water is life, but unfortunately, the global water community has been slow to provide its own unique response to climate change. They have chosen instead to play second fiddle to fossil fuel mitigation efforts, and to adapt to open-ended consequences when those measures fail to keep global temperature rise below the levels of absolute disaster. This is reflected in global multilateral accords such as the Paris Agreement, which have stressed reducing emissions, a task assigned largely to the energy sector, while the role of the water sector in dealing with both emissions and climate change impacts has occupied a much smaller space.
by Dipak Gyawali