Mastering Disaster in the Anthropocene: Reconciling DRR and Climate Frameworks

Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) policies and actions have made significant progress to ensure early warning, effective risk assessment for extreme events, and coordinated response and recovery processes. The climate adaptation community has also shown progress in identifying novel and emerging threats, as well as the systemic social-ecological interventions necessary to address and reduce long-term risks. Nevertheless, while important work has already been done to connect these agendas in theory, in practice the global bodies of policy (UNISDR and the UNFCCC) and local and regional communities of practice (DRR and climate adaptation) remain largely divided. How do we ensure that DRR policies and institutions can respond to projected climate threats, which will likely require integrated land and water management shifts across large spatial and temporal scales? How can we encourage the UNFCCC and NDC framework to harness disaster preparation and recovery efforts as a mechanism for ensuring long-term adaptation and resilience? This interactive session aims to demonstrate innovative ways that water, which profoundly affects and is affected by climate change and extreme events, can serve as an effective and necessary bridge between the two, aligning both policy and practice at the local and global levels.

Venue: Folkets Hus 307
Venue URL

Programme

16:00 Welcome: Taeko Yokota, Office of UNSG’s Special Envoy for Disaster Risk Reduction and Water

Opening remarks: H.E. Tian Xuebin, Vice Minister, Ministry of Water Resources, People’s Republic of China

16:15 Framing and context for the discussion: Franz Marré, Head of Water, Urban Development, Mobility, BMZ and Paula Kehoe, Director of Water Resources, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission

16:30 Pecha kucha interactive moderated panel discussion 

Moderator: Kathleen Dominique, Environmental Economist, OECD

Rapporteur: Ingrid Timboe, Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA)

Panelists:

• Diego Rodriguez, Senior Water Resources Management Specialist, The World Bank
• Gisela Kaiser, Executive Director, Water and Sanitation, Cape Town
• Jonathan Cook, Senior Climate Change Adaptation Specialist, USAID
• Kenzo Hiroki, UN High Level Experts and Leaders Panel on Water and Disasters (HELP) Coordinator
• Alastair Morrison, Senior Water Specialist, Green Climate Fund
• Paul Fleming, Water Program Manager, Environmental Sustainability Program, Microsoft

17:25 Wrap Up / Closing Remarks: Robert Kranefeld, Junior Advisor, Sustainable Water Policy, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

17:30 Event Concludes

Organiser

• World Water Council
• Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment of the Netherlands
• Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit
• The World Bank Group
• Stockholm International Water Institute
• Deltares
• Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany
• Office of the UNSG’s Special Envoy for Disaster Risk Reduction and Water
• High-level Experts and Leaders Panel on Water and Disasters
• Alliance for Global Water Adaptation