22 October 2014
Transboundary Basins Workshop Focuses on Adaptation to Climate Change
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The Fifth Workshop on Water and Adaptation to Climate Change in Transboundary Basins focused on developing and implementing climate change adaptation strategies and measures, taking into account specific outcomes at the transboundary level.

The workshop brought together experts working on adaptation to climate variability and change, with a focus on transboundary basins, was preceded by the 7th meeting of the Task Force on Water and Climate on 13 October, and was convened under the leadership of the Governments of the Netherlands and Switzerland, with support from the Secretariat of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).

UNECE15 October 2014: The Fifth Workshop on Water and Adaptation to Climate Change in Transboundary Basins focused on developing and implementing climate change adaptation strategies and measures, taking into account specific outcomes at the transboundary level. The workshop brought together experts working on adaptation to climate variability and change, with a focus on transboundary basins, and was preceded by the 7th meeting of the Task Force on Water and Climate on 13 October. It was convened under the leadership of the Governments of the Netherlands and Switzerland, with support from the Secretariat of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).

The workshop, which convened from 14-15 October in Geneva, Switzerland, was geared towards government representatives, water and health managers, local authorities, and representatives of academia, research institutes, and international and non-governmental organizations. The workshop provided the opportunity to: share experience on the latest methodologies, approaches, lessons learned and tools for addressing and anticipating climate impacts in transboundary basins; identify, collect and analyze good practices and lessons learned on adaptation, with a focus on transboundary basins; present and discuss progress of the global network of basins working on adaptation under the UNECE Water Convention, as well as similar initiatives by partners; and provide input to debates on water and climate, as well as on water and disasters, for example under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UN ISDR).

More specifically, the workshop addressed the following themes: development and implementation of transboundary adaptation strategies and/or mainstreaming of such strategies into basin-wide planning processes; effects of adaptation measures, including costs and benefits, prioritization, and selection and implementation of measures, such as joint monitoring, ecosystem restoration and ecosystem services; adaptive water management, and developing flexible basin/transboundary governance institutions; linkages between adaptation at the regional, transboundary, national and local levels, as well as between adaptation and disaster risk reduction (DRR); development of scenarios for water and future water use, taking into account socioeconomic and demographic aspects; and adaptation and mitigation synergies and trade-offs. [Workshop Webpage]


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