Mission The Co-operative Programme on Water and Climate (CPWC) aims to stimulate activities in the water sector that contribute to managing the effects of climate variability and change, in particular for the most vulnerable communities. There is still time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, if we take strong action now. — Sir Nicholas Stern, Adviser to the UK Government on the economics of climate change and development (2006) The Co-operative Programme on Water and Climate (CPWC) builds bridges between water managers and the climate community, from the local up to the global level. Through increasing awareness of the issues and of potential solutions we seek to set in motion social and political processes that will lead to the adoption of coping strategies and best practices.  CPWC brochure (PDF, 7.95 Mbyte)   Climate change Scientific evidence has now overwhelmingly proven that climate change is a serious global threat, and it requires urgent global response. Even at more moderate levels of warming, all the evidence – from detailed studies of regional and sectoral impacts of changing weather patterns to economic models of global effects – points to serious impacts on world output, on human life and on the environment (Stern Review on the economics of climate change, 2006). Climate change will affect the basic elements of life for people around the world—access to water, food production, health, and the environment. Hundreds of millions of people could suffer hunger, water shortages and coastal flooding as the world warms. All countries will be affected. The most vulnerable – the poorest countries and populations – will suffer earliest and most severely, even while they have contributed least to the causes of climate change. Climate change will lead to an intensification of the global hydrological cycle and will have a major impact on regional water resources. In many parts of the world, variability in climate conditions – next to many socio-economic and environmental developments – already has major impacts. Variability is increasing. Knowledge of variations in climatic patterns at different time scales – and human and ecological impacts – is essential to the sustainable management of the World’s freshwater resources. Both present variability and long-term impacts affect most severely the developing world, and particularly the poor of these regions. The costs of extreme weather, including floods, droughts and storms, are already rising, including for rich countries. The Stern Review on the economics of climate change continues to uphold that climate change could have very serious impacts on growth and development. The expected rise in temperature is equivalent to the change in average temperatures from the last ice age to today. Such a radical change in the physical geography of the world will inevitably lead to major changes in the human geography – where people live and how they live their lives. Based on a wide range of evidence on the impacts of climate change and on economic costs, using a number of different techniques to assess costs and risks, the evidence gathered by the Review leads to one simple conclusion: the benefits of strong and early action far outweigh the economic costs of not acting.   Adaptation Adaptation to climate change – taking steps to build resilience and minimize costs – is essential. It is no longer possible to prevent the impacts of climate change over the next two to three decades, but it is still possible to protect our societies and economies from their severity – by providing better information, improved planning and better adapted climate-resilient crops and infrastructure. UNDP’s Human Development Report 2007/2008 warns that inequalities in ability to cope with climate change are emerging as an increasingly powerful driver of wider inequalities between and within countries. It calls on rich countries to put climate change adaptation at the centre of international partnerships on poverty reduction. The report warns that adaptation is needed to prevent climate change leading to major setbacks in human development—and to guard against the very real danger of insufficient mitigation. Yet adaptation will cost tens of billions of dollars a year in developing countries alone, and will put still further pressure on already scarce resources. The poorest countries are most vulnerable to climate change. Adaptation efforts, particularly in developing countries, should be accelerated. The costs of stabilizing the climate are significant but manageable; delay would be dangerous and much more costly. Climate change is a global problem, so response to its impacts must be international: 1) based on a shared vision of long-term goals and agreement on frameworks that will accelerate action over the next decade and 2) built on mutually reinforcing approaches at national, regional and international levels. Countries facing diverse circumstances will use different approaches to make their contribution to tackling climate change. But action by individual countries is not enough. Each country, however large, is just a part of the problem. It is essential to create a shared international vision of long-term goals, and to build the international frameworks that will help each country to play its part in meeting these common goals. It is essential that climate change be fully integrated into development policy, and that rich countries honour their pledges to increase support through overseas development assistance. International funding should also support improved regional information on climate change impacts, and research into new crop varieties that will be more resilient to drought and flood.