The Thematic Priority Area on Water and Climate Change (TPA-WCC) was established in January 2010 to offer an opportunity to discuss climate change and water linkages in their widest sense and to ensure that the UN System in general, and UN-Water in particular are better prepared to meet future challenges and play an essential role in this area. Prior to 2010, a short-term Task Force comprising the same membership was in place. It became however clear that a long-standing coordination mechanism such as the TPA-WCC would be more adequate to address issues related to water and climate change, as they most likely will be at the forefront of UN-Water concerns for decades to come.
Through the UN-Water coordination mechanism that fosters increased interaction and coherence among its members and partners, the TPA-WCC aims at elaborating ways in which the UN System could play a more proactive and constructive role in the formulation and implementation of relevant adaptation and mitigation strategies.
The core objective of the TPA-WCC is to strengthen UN System coordination on activities related to water and climate change. This will in turn facilitate the assessment of the impacts of climate change on water, and the adoption of strategies for meeting the challenges of climate change both for adaptation and mitigation in the related water sub-sectors in support of Member countries.
The TPA-WCC 2011-2012 Work Plan includes both ongoing and upcoming activities. Ongoing activities are:
Preparing a Strategy/Plan for advocacy and communication
Providing continuous review of the web page and preparing a complete list of events on water and climate change
Updating the mapping of activities and complementing with the mapping of mandates, capabilities, needs, gaps and strategies
Preparing Guidelines on water-related adaptation/mitigation to climate change
Upcoming activities include:
Developing a joint project proposal on climate change mitigation and adaptation focusing on water and building on the guiding principles outlined in the UN-Water Policy Brief
Preparing a report on key challenges to adaptation
Developing internal capacity through the organization of training workshops for professionals of various UN-Water members and partners
Coordinator: Claudio Caponi
Senior Scientific Officer
Climate and Water Department, WMO Contact Claudio Caponi
Members:
Co operative Programme on Water and Climate (CPWC)• Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) • Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) • Global Water Partnership (GWP) • International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) • International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) • International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) • Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) • Swedish Water House (SWH)• United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) • United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) • UN-Water Decade Programme on Advocacy and Communication (UNW-DPAC) • UN-Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development (UNW-DPC) • United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) - Division for Sustainable Development • United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) • United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN ESCWA) • United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) • United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) • United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization International Hydrological Programme (UNESCO-IHP) • United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) • United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) • United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) • United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) • United Nations Secretary General Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation (UNSGAB) • United Nations University (UNU) • World Health Organization (WHO) • World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) • World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
The core objective of the TPA-WCC is to strengthen UN System coordination on activities related to water and climate change. This will in turn facilitate the assessment of the impacts of climate change on water, and the adoption of strategies for meeting the challenges of climate change both for adaptation and mitigation in the related water sub-sectors in support of Member countries.
