The COP27 screened through the lens of global water security

Marília Carvalho de Melo; Luís Filipe Sanches Fernandes; Teresa Cristina Tarlé Pissarra; Carlos Alberto Valera; Adriana Monteiro da Costa; Fernando António Leal Pacheco

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162303

The COP27 screened through the lens of global water security

Sci Total Environ. 2023 May 15:873:162303. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162303. Epub 2023 Feb 18.

Authors

Marília Carvalho de Melo¹, Luís Filipe Sanches Fernandes², Teresa Cristina Tarlé Pissarra³, Carlos Alberto Valera⁴, Adriana Monteiro da Costa⁵, Fernando António Leal Pacheco⁶

Affiliations

¹ Secretaria de Estado de Meio Ambiente e Desenvolvimento Sustentável, Cidade Administrativa do Estado de Minas Gerais, Rodovia João Paulo II, 4143, Bairro Serra Verde, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil; Universidade Vale do Rio Verde (UNINCOR), Av. Castelo Branco, 82 - Chácara das Rosas, Três Corações, MG 37417-150, Brazil. Electronic address: marilia.melo@meioambiente.mg.gov.br.
² Centro de Investigação e Tecnologias Agroambientais e Biológicas (CITAB), Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD), Ap. 1013, 5001-801 Vila Real, Portugal. Electronic address: lfilipe@utad.pt.
³ Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Via de Acesso Prof. Paulo Donato Castellane, s/n, Jaboticabal, SP 14884-900, Brazil. Electronic address: teresa.pissarra@unesp.br.
⁴ Coordenadoria Regional das Promotorias de Justiça do Meio Ambiente das Bacias dos Rios Paranaíba e Baixo Rio Grande, Rua Coronel Antônio Rios, 951, Uberaba, MG 38061-150, Brazil. Electronic address: carlosvalera@mpmg.mp.br.
⁵ Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Avenida Antônio Carlos, 6620, Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, MG 31270-901, Brazil.
⁶ Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Via de Acesso Prof. Paulo Donato Castellane, s/n, Jaboticabal, SP 14884-900, Brazil; Centro de Química de Vila Real (CQVR), Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD), Ap. 1013, 5001-801 Vila Real, Portugal. Electronic address: fpacheco@utad.pt.

PMID: 36805064
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162303

Abstract

Water security is an expression of resilience. In the recent past, scientists and public organizations have built considerable work around this concept launched in 2013 by the United Nations as "the capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability". In the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27), held in Sharm El-Sheikh (Egypt) in last November, water security was considered a priority in the climate agenda, especially in the adaption and loss and damage axes. This discussion paper represents the authors' opinion about how the conference coped with water security and what challenges remain to attend. As discussion paper, it had the purpose to stimulate further discussion in a broader scientific forum.

Keywords: COP27; Cooperation; Implementation; Urgency; Vulnerability; Water security.