Friday, May 9, 2008

Food for Thought...

Swimming Pools

By: Felix Dodds, Stakeholder Forum

I am a big fan of the UNEP Global Environmental Outlook Report. We have helped UNEP launch the second, third and most recently fourth report in London. This last one had a huge media impact in the UK and around the world as it looked back over twenty years to what had been achieved since the Brundtland Report in 1987.

The Report made sober reading. Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director, said: “The international community’s response to the Brundtland Commission has in some cases been courageous and inspiring. But all too often it has been slow and at a pace and scale that fails to respond to or recognize the magnitude of the challenges facing the people and the environment of the planet”.

The report highlighted that there had been some success cutting by 95 per cent, the production of ozone-layer damaging chemicals; creating a greenhouse gas emission reduction treaty along with innovative carbon trading and carbon offset markets; supporting a rise in terrestrial protected areas to cover 12 per cent of the Earth and devising numerous important conventions from biodiversity and desertification to the trade in hazardous wastes and living modified organisms.

The challenges though, are considerable: on water: Irrigation already takes about 70 per cent of available water, yet meeting the Millennium Development Goal on hunger will mean doubling food production by 2050. Fresh water is declining: by 2025, water use is predicted to have risen by 50 per cent in developing countries and by 18 per cent in the developed world. GEO-4 says: “The escalating burden of water demand will become intolerable in water-scarce countries.”

With the additional impact of climate change water availability is changing already. An example of this is how it has affected one of Europe's most developed cities.

I live in Spain and Barcelona has taken the unprecedented step of importing water by ship to prevent a water crisis prompted by extreme drought. The emergency measure, started this month with the Catalan Water Agency having chartered 10 super tankers to ship water to Spain's second city from Marseilles in France, Water will be imported for at least six months, or until the resumption of normal rainfall ends the region's acute water shortage. Spain has suffered a water shortage for 18 months, receiving only a third of its average rainfall.

Of course Spain isn’t the only country facing this new challenge. I was in Cyprus at a UNDP workshop last month when water was being rationed to the general public and hotels under 3 stars. This is before the real beginning of the tourist season in both Cyprus and Catalonia. It represents but the beginning of what we can expect to see much more of in the coming years in the developed countries. There are some very interesting lessons that can and are being transferred from the developing world. For a long time I have been a fan of rainwater harvesting. I see that in Bermuda, the law requires all new construction to include rainwater harvesting adequate for the residents. Perhaps something we can apply to our new buildings. Though I saw in Colorado, water rights laws severely restrict rainwater harvesting. A property owner who captures rainwater is effectively stealing it from those who have rights to take water from the watershed. This CSD has a real chance to see water as a critical cross cutting theme to the issues it is discussing as well as reviewing the 2005 decision. During the last three years we have seen an emergence of new issues around water that need discussing: water and climate change, and virtual water.