Business Daily (Nairobi)
Achim Steiner
24 February 2008
opinion
When you talk about climate change, you are also talking about "water change"- they are inseparable. It is also clear that when you talk about climate neutrality you are also talking about water and its future abundance or scarcity.
Thus any sensible water policy for the 21st century must include combating climate change. It is clear that 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.
It is clear 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 to put it mildly.
But even without climate change, we already have a water crisis in many parts of the world based on decades of perhaps overly simplistic views of the root problems and solutions. One of the great myths of Africa, for example, is that it is short of water-the fact is Africa is not.
A country like Kenya, where UNEP is headquartered, with a population of somewhere under 40 million people, actually has enough rainfall to supply the needs of six to seven times its current population. The fact is that much of this water is never collected.
You may logically conclude that big reservoirs are the answer and in some cases you may be right. Wetlands are also important ecosystems in terms of natural storage of water, yet half have been lost, mainly to drainage for uses such as agriculture since 1900. If forests are about water, they are also certainly about climate change-an estimated 20 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation in the tropics.
I would like to leave you with a final thought which underlines how we need to focus our full intelligence and knowledge on the climate challenge, the water challenge and the challenge of sustainable development generally. There is currently a great deal talked about biofuels-ome see them as a silver bullet in terms of combating global warming.
Others are alarmed at what they see as a new and added pressure on tropical forests; soils and peatlands and biodiversity such as the orangutans. Biofuels urgently need sustainability criteria so that consumers are reassured that biofuels produced in one way and in one country meet the highest environmental standards.
It can take 1,000 litres of water to make one litre of biofuel. By my calculation this is 250 times the daily drinking water needs of an individual. Does this mean that we should swiftly ban biofuels?- No.
Steiner is UNEP executive director.
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