Stockholm sends a message to Copenhagen on water

Stockholm, Sweden: Negotiators working towards a global agreement on climate change in Copenhagen in December are to be told that “water is a key medium through which climate change impacts will be felt” and that “a strong and fair agreement on future global commitments on climate change measures—both mitigation and adaptation—is crucial in order to secure future water resource availability”.

WWF, which played a key role in the discussions leading to the Stockholm Statement as a key outcome of World Water Week, strongly endorsed the message which was greeted with a unanimous show of hands by delegates when presented by convenor the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI).

The statement identifies integrating land, water and forest management as the key to successful climate change adaptation and said that “ecosystem protection and sustainability is fundamental to adaptation and human development”.

Presenting the results of the discussions, WWF head of Freshwater Adaptation Dr John Matthews said that “water is not simply a sector, it is what we are made of”.

“Decisions about water infrastructure and management that we will live with for decades are being made now, all too often under policies and by institutions that were built on an assumption of a stable climate and have yet to adapt themselves,” Dr Matthews said.

“Adaptation measures now going forward in the negotiations are dangerously disconnected from what we are learning about successful climate adaptation and building climate resilience in the field.”

“This Stockholm Statement is important in linking the need for effective mitigation measures through which we can minimise the extent of climate change and core adaptation priorities that can minimise the impacts of climate.”

Dr Matthews said most elements of good adaptation practice were already known but more effort needed to be devoted to the assessment of regional, economic and social vulnerability to climate change impacts, and managing risk for extreme events. There was a need also to reduce the uncertainty in climate projections.

UN CONFERENCE CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL PANEL TO WARN AGAINST DANGEROUS CHEMICALS

UN CONFERENCE CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL PANEL TO WARN AGAINST DANGEROUS CHEMICALS
New York, May 11 2009 11:00AM
A key speaker at a United Nations conference on managing the health risks posed by everyday chemicals has called for the world body to create an international panel of experts to help protect the public against the poisonous substances.

It has become increasingly urgent to manage chemicals in household products safely to protect children and future generations, stressed former Swedish Environment Ambassador Viveka Bohn at the opening of the second session of the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM2).

Although Governments and industry are responsible for tackling the health and environment problems caused by chemicals, Ms. Bohn said that scientists have a "key role to play in conveying and explaining to the public and to the politicians, clearly and objectively, the latest knowledge on the effects of exposure to chemicals, especially the 'cocktail' effect."

There is wide agreement that much more research is needed on the unpredictable impact of several chemicals found together, known as the cocktail effect.

In her address to the five-day conference in Geneva, read by her daughter Maria, Ms. Bohn pushed for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to pool scientific research on chemicals and to establish an international chemicals panel similar to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

In a related development, governments around the world banned nine chemicals on Saturday, adding them on the list of 12 substances already prohibited under the 2001 Stockholm Convention.

The Stockholm Convention targets hazardous pesticides and industrial chemicals that can kill people, damage the nervous and immune systems, cause cancer and reproductive disorders and interfere with normal infant and child development.

"We now have a clear signal that Governments around the world take seriously the risks posed by such toxic chemicals," UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

Adding the new chemicals to the Convention – administered by UNEP and signed by 152 governments – signals a shift reflecting "international concern on the need to reduce and eventually eliminate such substances throughout the global community," added Mr. Steiner.

The week-long Conference of the Parties (COP), held in Geneva from 4 to 9 May, also reached a decision on the endorsement of the DDT global partnership. While DDT is targeted for eventual elimination, the Convention recognizes that some countries will continue to use this pesticide to protect their citizens from malaria and other diseases.
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