COP28 – What About Freshwater?

Each year during the UNFCCC climate summit (this year known as COP28) attention is rightly given to big themes like reducing global emissions, increasing climate finance, bolstering adaptation efforts, and so on. Historically missing from the conservation, however, has been any mention of water.?

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and our partners in the water community have long been working to change that. Together we’ve called on UNFCCC parties to incorporate clear, detailed freshwater-related commitments into their revised national climate, biodiversity, and finance plans; we’ve advocated for increased investments in nature; we’ve promoted the role of healthy freshwater systems in supporting climate mitigation and adaptation goals; and we’ve shown, through countless examples, the many benefits that flow from properly valuing our freshwater systems.

So how did we do this year? How visible was water in the COP28 negotiations and relevant parallel commitments in the end?

The good is that water may finally be getting the attention it deserves. Last year at COP27, water was mentioned for the first time in a COP cover decision. This year, even more progress was made, including five milestones of particular note:

1.????? Freshwater is visible in The Global Stocktake decision: The Global Stocktake is a process to evaluate what parties have achieved since the Paris Agreement to implement their Nationally-Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans, and identifies pathways to enhancing these efforts. In the end, we are celebrating that the Global Stocktake decision recognizes "the critical role of protecting, conserving and restoring water systems and water-related ecosystems in delivering climate adaptation benefits and co-benefits, while ensuring social and environmental safeguards".

2.????? Freshwater features prominently in the Framework of the Global Goal on Adaptation: The Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), as the UNFCCC describes, is a pivotal component of the Paris Agreement that will help the world enhance its adaptive capacity, strengthen resilience and reduce vulnerability to climate change. At the end of negotiations, water appeared all over the GGA, with explicit mention in targets 1 and 4 and implicitly in a 3rd target related to food security and regenerative agriculture:

a.????? Significantly reducing climate-induced water scarcity and enhancing climate resilience to water-related hazards towards a climate-resilient water supply, climate-resilient sanitation and towards access to safe and affordable potable water for all;

b.????? Reducing climate impacts on ecosystems and biodiversity, and accelerating the use of ecosystem-based adaptation and nature-based solutions, including through their management, enhancement, restoration and conservation and the protection of terrestrial, inland water, mountain, marine and coastal ecosystems;

c.????? Attaining climate-resilient food and agricultural production and supply and distribution of food, as well as increasing sustainable and regenerative production and equitable access to adequate food and nutrition for all;

3.????? Almost 40 countries committed to The Freshwater Challenge: One of the major water wins was the overwhelming endorsement of the Freshwater Challenge (FWC), a country-led initiative launched at the UN Water Conference last March, which aims, by 2030, to restore 300,000 km of river and 350 million ha of wetlands, while securing the protection of key freshwater ecosystems. We entered COP28 with six champion countries on board: Colombia, DRC, Ecuador, Gabon, Mexico, and Zambia . On December 13th, with our partners, we proudly announced 38 signatory countries (see this post from TNC on LinkedIn ), including the United States . The Nature Conservancy has supported the Freshwater Challenge since its inception, helping to refine its scope, encouraging new countries to sign on, shaping its vision around the transboundary collaboration and more.

4.????? Parties committed to a tripling of renewable energy capacity by 2030: We’re also celebrating the Parties commitment to the tripling of renewable energy capacity by 2030. This is in large part due to the 3xRenewables campaign led by the Global Renewables Alliance (GRA), of which TNC is a supporting signatory. The commitment includes a major emphasis on wind and solar, important alternatives to energy generated by hydropower dams. This is largely good news, though as a conservation community we must stay vigilant: some estimates of what it will take to triple renewables across energy types project a need for the doubling of new hydropower. A growth at this scale could be devasting to the planet’s last free flowing rivers.

5.????? ?Water Scarcity and Drought were front and center – A high-level roundtable hosted by Spain and Senegal celebrated the one-year anniversary of the International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA) by announcing six new country signatories (Australia, Colombia, Italy, Comoros, Uruguay, and Jordan) to the global Alliance. CEO Jennifer Morris is a member of the IDRA Steering Committee and delivered remarks alongside Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sa?nchez and United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw. The event coincided with the release of UNCCD’s Global Drought Snapshot 2023 Report , which outlines the dire impacts of drought worldwide.

We need to celebrate these wins for water. While it’s not everything we pushed for, is a major leap in the right direction. TNC has a series of next steps related to the GGA, the Freshwater Challenge, and the International Drought Resilience Alliance in cooperation with our partners, including governments, donors, NGOs, IPLCs, and businesses. While policy wins and global dialogue is great, we need to move quickly to increased investment in projects and protections around the world so that we can reduce the decline of freshwater ecosystems health and species loss. Building a more sustainable, resilient, and equitable future that includes healthy freshwater ecosystems will take each and every one of us and many others too.