COP15 delegates attacked for not thinking of water

Speaking at a side event at the Bella Center in Copenhagen today (December 8) the groups said leaving water out of climate change agreement was like not discussing food when tackling a famine.

Among a series of speakers Hannah Stoddard of Stakeholder Forum, an international multi-stakeholder organisation working on environmental action, was highly critical of the lack of a ruling on water.

She said: “Analysis by the World Water Assessment Programme on the role of water in National Adaptation Plans of Action (NAPAs) is often significantly lacking.

“So the identification of what must be taken on is crucial and the role of water management must be recognised in this regard.

“Let’s be clear not talking about water management in relation to an impending environmental crisis is tantamount to not talking about food shortage in the face of a famine.”

John Matthews, of the World Widelife Fund, added: “The city of Shanghai that has something like 25m people living in it, its highest point is maybe five metres above sea level.

“Most of it is only one or two metres above sea level, this is one of the great engines of the global economy that’s terribly threatened both in its water supply by climate change and the actual Yangtze River and from sea rise.”

Luke Walsh