New Delhi: A meeting of world leaders at the ongoing COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland, on Tuesday formed a water and climate coalition to address both the crisis of water scarcity and water-related threats from rising temperatures.
According to the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Water and Climate Coalition, led by the Presidents of Tajikistan and Hungary, aims to implement necessary reforms in the global management of water resources.
The WMO statement said leaders on Tuesday called for immediate and integrated action to replace the current “fragmented and crisis-driven approach”.
water and climate alliance
WMO Secretary-General Petrie Talas and UN-Water Chair Gilbert Hongbo invited water and climate leaders to set and advance a unified global water and climate agenda.
Leaders formed the Water and Climate Coalition on Tuesday with the aim of facilitating sustainable development and national mitigation and adaptation actions.
The Water and Climate Coalition will create space to raise awareness of global water and climate issues, and bring together water and climate leaders, using an integrated approach.
This will facilitate the implementation of actions needed to ensure water-climate management for effective adaptation and resilience, and help achieve Sustainable Development Goals 6 and 13 as per WMO.
The leaders of the Water and Climate Coalition will attend a conference at COP26 on Wednesday titled: “Committed to a Unified Global Water and Climate Agenda”.
Media reports, citing WMO spokeswoman Claire Nullis, say that water and climate must be tackled together because water is like a canary in the climate’s coal mine.
Tajikistan has proposed to declare 2025 as the International Year for Glacier Conservation.
At the launch of the coalition, Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon said he would set up a fund for glacier conservation.
He said that the volume of glaciers, which account for 60 percent of the water resources of Central Asia, has decreased by a third and 1000 glaciers have completely melted.
The WMO said melting glaciers increase the risk of water-related hazards such as landslides and avalanches for high mountain regions such as Central Asia, the Himalayas and the Andes. “In the long term this means a water security crisis for millions of people and vast ecosystems,” it said.
.