Addressing Water in National Adaptation Plans - water supplement to the UNFCCC NAP technical guidelines

Urgent transformational change is required to avoid global catastrophe and limit the damage from climate risks. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that the window of opportunity to make changes is closing fast. If current emissions trajectories continue, global temperature rise compared to preindustrial levels could surpass 1.5°C in as little as 12 years, beyond which significantly worse climate risks threaten to perpetuate massive poverty for hundreds of millions of people, as well as generate irreversible changes in vital ecosystems. Most at risk are the world’s poorest, living in countries with weak water governance systems, weak institutions, inadequate regulatory regimes, and poor water infrastructure.

Water is a crucial environmental resource central to national economic development and livelihoods activities, alongside providing a range of context-dependent direct and indirect benefits, be they cultural, spiritual, environmental, or social. Water is also a critical pathway through which countries encounter climate risks, in terms of slow-onset droughts, acute floods, and other such disasters. Least Developed Countries in particular may lack adaptation capacities to harness the beneficial aspects of water under a changing climate, or to mitigate water-related climate risks.

See also: https://www.gwp.org/globalassets/global/gwp_napleaflet.pdf