Professor Yu zhongbo Attended the International Conference on Climate Risk, Vulnerability and Resilience Building

Climate change is intensifying the water cycle, which brings more frequent extreme events and poses great challenges to the food and water security issues around the world. Regions such as Africa, Asia, Latin America, small islands, and the Arctic are particularly more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In this context, UNESCO held the International Conference on Climate Risk, Vulnerability and Resilience Building at its headquarters in France from April 19th to 21st. Professor Yu Zhongbo, President of the Intergovernmental Hydrological Program (IHP) of UNESCO and Director of the National Key Laboratory of Water Disaster Prevention at Hohai University, attended the conference and delivered a keynote speech entitled " Addressing Challenges in Climate Change: IHP IX contribution to climate risk management". Qu Xing, Deputy Director General of UNESCO, delivered an opening speech.

This conference revolves around hydroclimatic risk, monitoring and vulnerability, with the aim of obtaining state-of-the-art solutions for climate risk management. It consists of three thematic discussions, namely “Science-Policy Discussion Panel: Bridging the gap between science and the different scales of decision making for climate risk management”, “Panel discussion: Next level of participatory water management: Citizen and open science and the role of indigenous and local knowledge systems”, and “Panel discussion: Water as a climate connector: The central role of water-energy-food nexus in cross-sectorial adaptation”.

Prof. Yu pointed out that climate risk management requires collective and adaptive approaches to address current and future water security challenges in a changing world. UNESCO has developed the Climate Risk Informed Decision Analysis (CRIDA) methodology to identify water security risks related to hydro-climatic events and effectively support member states in building resilient water governance systems and water security societies. Through the joint efforts of the UNESCO water family, the 9th phase of the UNESCO’S Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP IX, 2022-2029) “Science for a Water Secure World in a changing environment” will be fully implemented from five themes including Scientific research and innovation, Water Education in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Bridging the data-knowledge gap, Integrated water resources management under conditions of global change, and Water Governance based on science for mitigation, adaptation and resilience. The assessment of climate risk, vulnerability and resilience will be jointly carried out to address the complex challenges of water resources in the changing environment for development in water to be sustainable. Prof. Yu also introduced the recent successful high-level events such as the Groundwater Summit and UN 2023 Water Conference, as well as the outcomes of related conferences. He discussed the establishment of a science-based global water assessment and climate change adaptation risk management solution, and emphasized the importance of personal and organizational capacity development in addressing water and climate challenges to accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), especially SDG6 related to water and climate.