GIWEH effectively participated to the COP23 - the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bonn, Germany from 6 to 17 November.
GIWEH supported the role of civil society on Water and climate change issues, as part of the organization's goal to promote this topic at the World Water Forum 8.
GIWEH joined the World Water Council activities at the water day on 10th November. This official “Water Action Day” has been organized on Friday 10th of November 2017, on the Global Climate Action (GCA) Campus of the Bonn Zone. It was organized as following:
• One high level opening ceremony (room 2)
• One high level “Water Dialogue” on improving water and climate financing (room 7)
Three parallel Breakout Sessions :
o “Water knowledge to respond to climate uncertainty” (room 10)
o “Water for urban resilience” (room 2)
o “Water for sustainable agriculture and food security” (room 1)
The opening plenary of this “Water Action Day” was an opportunity to present the actions carried out since COP22 and the new commitments made during COP23 by the Global Alliances for Water and Climate (GAfWaC), composed of four stand-alone Alliances:
-
The Alliance of the 360 signatories of the Paris Pact on water and adaptation to climate change in the basins of rivers, lakes and aquifers, facilitated by INBO in partnership with UNECE,
-
The Business Alliance for Water And Climate Change - BAFWAC, launched by the Carbon Disclosure Project - CDP, the CEO Water Mandate, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and SUEZ, which has now 44 member organizations, including30leading companies,
-
The Alliance of Megacities for Water and Climate, facilitated by UNESCO, ICLEI, SIAAP and Arceau-IDF, gathering 16 Megacities for a total population of 300 million inhabitants.
-
The Global Clean Water Desalination Alliance,launched by Masdar Institute (UAE), which gathers companies and research and development organizations from 23 countries (i.e. United States, China, Korea, Japan).
GIWEH also held meetings with key organizations to enhance and support the cooperation programs related to water, food and energy, among these organization UNCDF- United Nations Capital Development Fund, UNEP- United Nations Environment Program, ICARDA- International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Regions, Kewasnet- Kenya Water and Sanitation Civil Society Network and other.