UNFCCC COP27

The 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) will take place in Sharm El Sheikh and virtually from 6-18 November 2022. The conference will take place under the presidency of Egypt. The events of COP27 will take place at the Sharm El-Sheikh International Convention Center and online.

The goal of the COP presidency this year is “Inclusive, rules-based and ambitious, substantive outcomes, commensurate with the challenge based on science and guided by principles building on agreements, decisions, pledges and commitments, from RIO 1992 to Glasgow 2021.”

AGWA will be active throughout COP27. On this page you will find details about some of our events in Sharm El-Sheikh and online, as well as other relevant articles and links.

More information will be added to this webpage as it becomes available. Check back often for updates. For more details, you can also visit the official UNFCCC COP27 website here. 

The Water & Climate Pavilion

The water community is once again rallying together to amplify the profile of water within the climate dialogue. This year’s COP will again feature the Water and Climate Pavilion for a second consecutive year. Through an impactful set of hybrid events and unified messaging, organizers of the Water and Climate Pavilion aims to promote climate-resilient water management and supply solutions that will support Parties in meeting their climate goals. A further goal of the Pavilion is to point out the connections between water and climate change mitigation and adaptation through collaboration with partners in other sectors. Programming at the Water and Climate Pavilion will target government leaders, intergovernmental/ multilateral representatives, civil society, and private sector stakeholders attending the COP.

The Water & Climate Pavilion is located in the Blue Zone, and accessible both in-person to accreditation holders and virtually through the Pavilion’s website, throughout COP27 from 8-18 November.

The pavilion is organized under the leadership of Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation and supported by a set of core partners including AGWA.

The Resilience Hub

Led by global non-state actors from business, investors, civil society, academia, cities and regions, the Resilience Hub is a physical and virtual space at COP27 and home of the Race to Resilience. The programme is led by Hubs from around the globe – South Asia, Latin America, Africa, South East and East Asia, Pacific — and from the heart of Sharm El-Sheikh..

Registration to join the virtual events is required but free. Events will also be available for replay on demand.

AGWA Events @COP27

Tuesday, 8 November

Bottom-up approaches to building resilience, adaptive capacity, and financing in water in Asia and the Pacific

The session will discuss how financing needs and innovative approaches identified at the local level and aligned with broader water security and resilience goals are required to tackle above challenges. It includes the launch of a new initiative with partners, keynote speeches from the initiative partners and development member countries, and a high-level panel discussion with MDBs, bilateral, and financing partners. The discussion will allow frank and open discussion focusing on sharing of what has worked and not worked and what needs to be done more or what may need to change course on mobilizing more financing on water related SDGs to achieve climate adaptation needs toward resilience, adaptive capacity and water security in the region.

When: 10:00-11:30
Venue: Water & Climate Pavilion
Organizers: Asian Development Bank, Government of the Netherlands, Government of Japan, Government of the Republic of Korea, GMGF, Green Climate Fund, Sanitation and Water for All (SWA), OECD, Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA)

Wednesday, 9 November

Support opportunities available to developing country Parties for implementing MRV arrangements under the Convention and ETF under the Paris Agreement

As developing country Parties start implementing their NDCs and participate to the ETF, a key focus for them will be to enhance their existing capacities in order to track their progress and report on their climate ambitions and actions. They will therefore want to tap into any opportunities available to enhance those capacities.

This event highlights some of those financial, technical and capacity-building support opportunities available to developing country Parties for implementing the MRV arrangements under the Convention and the ETF under the Paris Agreement.

The UNFCCC Climate Change Secretariat, together with international partners, will showcase their work, the support opportunities available and how developing country Parties could go about accessing them.

When: 16:45 - 18:15
Venue: Blue Zone, Room Tutankhamun
Organizers: UNFCCC

Thursday, 10 November

Managing Water Stress in the Face of Climate Change

Droughts and floods are some of the most devastating impacts of climate change and pose a significant and increasing threat to global water security. This session will explore the implications for developing long-term solutions for climate resilience, evaluating the latest science and the long-term trends. The session will also discuss how to promote collective actions for water-related disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, and resilience in the case of river basin management through global showcases.

When: 10:15-11:15
Venue: Water & Climate Pavilion
Organizers: Republic of Tajikistan, Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA), French Water Partnership, Japan Water Forum, Center for Climate and Resilience Research CR2

Sustainable Solutions for Human Security: Regional Initiative on Climate Security in the Arab States

A new white paper, “Regional Initiative on Climate Security in the Arab States,” aims to address the issues around climate change and associated food crises in the context of increasing conflict and social vulnerability in the Arab Region by developing a robust, interconnected agenda of programs and activities that intersect with these issues. This COP27 session will introduce the paper and to build a clear understanding of the complex Climate-Security nexus in the region as well as recommendations and sustainable solutions for human security.

When: 11:00-12:30
Venue: UNDP Pavilion
Organizers: League of Arab States, European Union, World Bank, European Investment Bank, Islamic Development Bank, United Nations Development Programme

Multi-stakeholder approaches to building resilience: Science-based tools for adaptation

Building resilience is a collective effort that requires a systems approach. It connects multiple components, including socio-economic, institutional and biophysical systems. Enhancing resilience with one aspect is not sufficient to build system resilience. We need to have a shared understanding of how individual stakeholders, ranging from local communities and businesses, to governments and other institutions, directly or indirectly engage in the process. We need practical tools and approaches to identify, act, measure, and report the impacts of resilience-building efforts. This session brings together practical work from key organizations in this space.

When: 10:00-11:30
Venue: Water & Climate Pavilion
Organizers: Pacific Institute, AGWA, UNESCO-IHP, Center for Climate and Resilience Research (CR)2, Forest-Water Champions

Systems Thinking for NDCs and NAPs: The Role of Water

Parties to the UNFCCC have identified their climate priorities and commitments over the last few years, sharing ambitious pledges in the form of NDCs and NAPs. This session will highlight some of the ways that adaptation action is enhanced and accelerated by taking an integrated and water-centric approach to capacity building, stakeholder engagement, and project implementation.

When: 12:00 - 13:30
Venue: Water & Climate Pavilion
Organizers: UNEP Freshwater Unit, Water and Climate Coalition (WCC), African Minsters Council on Water (AMCOW), Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA)

Scaling up climate adaptation and early warning early action – An evening reception organised by The Adaptation Action Coalition (AAC) & The Risk-informed Early Action Partnership (REAP)

This evening reception, on Adaptation Day at the end of the first week of COP, will provide an opportunity for Parties to come together in an informal setting to discuss the importance of turning climate adaptation ambition into action, and how scaling up early warning early action is a key route to doing so.

Short opening interventions will draw attention to the importance of the work the AAC and REAP have undertaken in this space over the past year. Participants will also learn about progress within the AAC's four established workstreams, and the launch of the new DRR workstream, as well as how REAP is catalysing support for the UN Secretary General’s Early Warnings for All initiative.

When: 18:30 - 20:00
Venue: UK Pavilion
Organizers: Government of the United Kingdom, Adaptation Action Coalition (AAC), Risk-informed Early Action Partnership (REAP)

Implementing Adaptation through the AAC’s Sectoral Workstreams

This ministerial-level event will focus on shifting from adaptation planning to implementation, with AAC member countries highlighting how they are accelerating implementation of national and local level priorities within NAPs, and NDCs and DRR strategies, including locally led adaptation and sectoral activities.

When: 11:00 - 12:00
Venue: UK Pavilion
Organizers: Adaptation Action Coalition

IPCC AR6 water security conclusions & launch of the Expanded Water Tracker for National Climate Plans

At COP27, this session will launch a new global partnership supporting the implementation of water-resilient NDCs & NAPs. Speakers will provide an overview of climate risks to water security, including drought, floods, and human vulnerability and demonstrate how the Water Tracker tool addresses these systemic issues

When: 16:45 - 18:15
Venue: Blue Zone, Room Hatshepsut
Organizers: Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA), International Water Management Institute (IWMI), University of Exeter, University of Reading

Beyond the Water Box: Transformative partnerships for a climate resilient future

To close out the first week of COP, the organizers of the Resilience Hub and Water Pavilion will co-host a networking reception around the theme of accelerating science-informed, intergenerational, multistakeholder partnerships for a climate-resilient future, building on complementary topics explored in both pavilions throughout the week. Our interrelated climate, biodiversity, health, water, and food crises cannot be understood or addressed in isolation, nor can they be solved by one sector alone. The event will briefly showcase 3-4 such partnerships followed by an opportunity for all participants to ask questions and engage with the speakers in an informal but structured networking setting. Participants will also reflect on the critical role of youth and civil society engagement in designing, implementing and scaling multi-disciplinary solutions.

When: 18:30 - 20:00
Venue: Water & Climate Pavilion
Organizers: Organizers of the Resilience Hub and the Water & Climate Pavilion

Realizing Resilience: A Pragmatic Path for Companies and Communities

This event will take you through a thought-provoking journey on how systematically one can build water resilience in times of climate uncertainties and other stresses. It will present why we need to worry about water when we talk about climate change? It presents an innovative solution to building resilience, and finally, it will present how it is pushing the edge of resilience thinking from the decision-makers, practitioners, and leaders in the field of resilience and climate change. We’ll produce a storyline that will have a moderating storyteller with recorded snippets to support the case. There will be two quick surveys [one to gauge how the audience sees the problem, and the second one how they think differently after the session], time allocated for Q&A, and finally a synthesis with directions to engage, etc.

When: 11:00 - 12:00
Venue: UNFCCC Action Hub
Organizers: Pacific Institute, CEO Water Mandate, AGWA

Launch of the Climate Risk Informed Decision Analysis (CRIDA) for Africa and the Arab Region

As highlighted in the IPCC 2022 report, the next decade will be crucial to ensure adequate adaptation is put in place with active engagement from local communities. There is a particular need to identify adaptation pathways to integrate science-based understanding of climate impacts on water security into decision making. UNESCO has therefore developed the Climate Risk Informed Decision Analysis or CRIDA to provide a comprehensive approach to assess water security vulnerabilities due to climate variability and change, using a bottom-up approach for the development of adaptation pathways for robust water resources management.

A dedicated launch event of CRIDA for Africa and the Arab Region will be held to present the CRIDA approach, and to launch the multilingual versions of the methodology in English, French, Arabic and Spanish. The launch will also allow to kick-off the online courses in these four languages, which will support the further upscaling of bottom-up climate change adaptation in Africa and beyond.

When: 15:45 - 16:45
Venue: UNESCO Pavilion
Organizers: UNESCO, Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA), International Center for Integrated Water Resources Management (ICIWaRM)

Climate Action Event on Water - Initiative Spotlight: WR4ER

As part of the High-Level Champions & Marrakech Partnership Climate Action Event on Water, AGWA will be announcing new developments from the Water Resilience for Economic Resilience (WR4ER) initiative, which demonstrates the centrality of water resilience for economic planning, development, and evaluation.

When: 10:40-10:45
Venue: Climate Action Zone, Room Ibis
Organizers: SIWI, WRI, High-Level Climate Champions, AGWA

From the Local Watershed to the Global Agenda: NBS for Healthy Freshwater Systems at Multiple Scales

There is no “climate-secure” world without an ecologically secure world. Healthy freshwater ecosystems, including their watersheds, underpin climate resilience and water security. However, freshwater ecosystems around the world are collapsing, threatening biodiversity and ultimately us. This session will explore opportunities for increased investment in nature-based solutions to protect global freshwater ecosystems, including new approaches and tools at multiple scales (watershed level collective action, national planning and regulatory reform, connection to policy and decision makers [i.e. Paris Agreement, Post-2020 GBF, the 2030 Agenda, etc.], and most importantly deep connections to communities in watersheds.

When: 11:00 - 12:00
Venue: Water & Climate Pavilion
Organizers: The Nature Conservancy, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA)

Storytelling series: Indigenous peoples perspectives on natural resources management

The GEF and other international partners showcase the financial, technical and capacity-building support opportunities available to developing country Parties for implementing the MRV arrangements under the Convention and transitioning to the enhanced transparency framework under the Paris Agreement

When: 09:00 - 10:30
Venue: Resilience Hub
Organizers: Australian Water Partnership, Waikato River Authority, University of Canberra, Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA)