Climate Conference Brazil
During my recent visit to Congo, I was surprised to see how many people still draw water from natural sources for drinking and cooking. Although not ideal, this water is often reliable. I drank it myself for four days. However, global warming is putting this cheap and natural source of (daily) life under severe pressure. We want the voices of these concerned people in our partner countries to be heard by policymakers, including at the international level. Because it is at the international level that decisions will soon be made that will affect the availability of water in our partner countries: during the recently started climate conference in Brazil.
Everyone agrees that global warming must be halted, although the policymakers currently in charge seem to have resigned themselves to the fact that we will exceed 2°C. A more or less safe increase is a maximum of 1.5°C, as agreed ten years ago at the Paris climate conference.
While we must strive to prevent this mitigation – or limitation of global warming – from getting further out of hand, there is a growing need for measures to adapt to the consequences of global warming: prolonged droughts, floods and shifting seasons due to unpredictable rainfall.
Countries that have contributed least to the crisis are carrying the heaviest burden
Unfortunately, these consequences are felt most acutely in the Global South. Yet countries in the Global South have contributed the least to the excess CO₂ in the atmosphere. Moreover, they have limited resources to provide expensive infrastructure works to protect against flooding, for example, or to create water buffers to bridge periods of drought.
This need for measures and funding to help us adapt (adaptation) to the (already) warming earth is an important theme at the current climate conference. Two years ago, an agreement in principle was reached on the definition of seven areas where action is needed, with water as the first area. At this COP, decisions must be made on what concrete actions will be taken in each area, what commitments countries will make and how they will be held accountable.
An example of such a measure is that drinking water and toilets must be climate-proof. Take a dire but unfortunately realistic situation: a drinking water source can flood during heavy rainfall due to water from the wider area, including polluted water from suddenly overflowing toilet pits. It is perfectly possible to better protect that source, and there are also toilets that can be made more “climate-robust”. This does require the necessary political will, which then paves the way for action and funding.
To strengthen that political will, Join For Water is present at the climate conference. Our director is part of the official Belgian delegation and can therefore attend many official negotiations as an observer.
Over the coming days, we will be talking to our Belgian climate ambassador and climate ministers, to one of the climate ministers from our partner countries, to climate donors and like-minded NGOs at the COP. We will give our partners and local staff as much of a voice as possible, either by letting them speak for themselves (sometimes via video) or by sharing their stories as they tell them to us.
✍️ Text: Bart Dewaele, director of Join For Water