Guidance on Water and Adaptation to Climate Change released and adopted by Water Convention Parties‏

We are pleased to announce that the Guidance on Water and Adaptation to Climate Change was released and adopted by the fifth session of the Meeting of the Parties to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe's Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention) which took place on 10-12 November in Geneva. the Guidance is a unique tool which explains step-by-step how to develop and implement an adaptation strategy, with a special focus on the transboundary context.

Based on the concept of integrated water resources management, the Guidance provides advice to decision makers and water managers on how to assess impacts of climate change on water quantity and quality, how to perform risk assessment, including health risks, how to gauge vulnerability, and how to design and implement appropriate adaptation strategies. More than 80 different authors from many countries and disciplines contributed to this truly cooperative effort which contains nearly 40 case studies.

The Guidance will be launched and presented at a side event at the COP-15 in Copenhagen on 16 December at 11 a.m. in the Dutch Pavillion. This side event will focus on transboundary cooperation on adaptation to climate change and will feature several partly high-level speakers, for example from the Netherlands, Germany, UNECE and countries with economies in transition. If you are in Copenhagen we would like to invite you or your colleagues to this event.

More information on the meeting is available at:
http://www.unece.org/env/water/mop5.htm