In a speech to Members of the European Parliament, Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), stressed the urgency of addressing the impacts of climate change on water resources.

He noted that the challenge of future water supplies and availability flowed through almost every conclusion of the IPCC’s fourth assessment report and stressed that “any sensible water policy for the 21st century must include combating climate change.” Regarding the Bali Road Map, Steiner said the “international community must successfully navigate the Bali Road Map, agreed at the last climate convention, by the time of the climate change meeting scheduled in Copenhagen in 2009.”
He stressed that without “a deep and decisive climate regime post-2012 our ability to meet the Millennium Development Goals as they relate to water, and also to poverty and so many other issues, will be tough.” Steiner concluded that “in cutting greenhouse gas emissions we not only work towards ‘climate neutrality’ but also ‘water neutrality’ and perhaps other forms of neutrality, from ‘forest neutrality,’ ‘biodiversity neutrality’ and maybe even ‘soil and peatland neutrality’.”
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