The Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA) issued a policy brief explaining why countries should adopt a source-to-sea approach to meet their commitments under the Paris Agreement on climate change. The brief is based on a 2019 study by AGWA and the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) that analyzes the extent to which countries have integrated such approaches in their national climate plans.

According to the brief, titled ‘Source-to-Sea is Key to Climate Security,’ source to sea approaches embrace system-wide thinking and acknowledge the interdependencies of flows and services throughout river basins, deltas, coasts and marine areas. Considering these linkages, the brief highlights that, it is “possible to achieve much-needed coordination across institutions, sectors and public uses.” 

AGWA and SIWI further highlight the possibilities for source-to-sea approaches to address the challenge of fragmented governance of water, and to improve the effectiveness of national climate plans. The publication presents four main  recommendations for implementing them in the context of national adaptation and mitigation actions:

• integrating source-to-sea assessments into climate-related planning processes;
• building capacity to coordinate land, coastal and freshwater management in climate plans;
• coordinating approaches to build ecosystem resilience; and
• monitoring and sharing outcomes and lessons.

The report is one of four AGWA policy reports released on the occasion of the 25th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP 25) in Madrid, Spain. AGWA is a multi-stakeholder network for sustainable water resource management. The network includes development banks, government agencies, businesses, civil society and academia.