Source: Pacific Institute

11 Jan 2010 - Global climate change will increase the risk of conflict over shared international freshwater resources. Treaties and other cross-border agreements can help reduce those risks, but existing agreements are inadequate for dealing with the impacts of climate change. A new Pacific Institute analysis for the United Nations, Understanding and Reducing the Risks of Climate Change for Transboundary Waters, identifies these growing risks and proposes methods for reducing them.



“Climate changes will inevitably affect water resources around the world, altering water availability, quality, and the management of infrastructure,” said Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute. “New disputes are already arising in transboundary watersheds and are likely to become more common. The existing agreements and international principles for sharing water will not adequately handle the strain of future pressures, particularly those caused by climate change.”



The world’s freshwater resources are unevenly and irregularly distributed, with some regions of the world extremely short of water, and political borders and boundaries rarely coincide with borders of watersheds. Water disputes are generally resolved diplomatically, and shared water resources are often a source of cooperation and negotiation. An estimated 300 agreements have been developed between States that border a shared river. But there is also a long history of violence associated with transboundary waters that highlights the challenges associated with managing shared water resources. The Pacific Institute’s Water and Conflict Chronology, updated in December with interactive maps and timeline, shows a growing incidence of disputes over water allocations leading to conflict across local borders, ethnic boundaries, or between economic groups, as well as in international conflicts. Climate change will only make these problems worse.



With most of the available freshwater of the Earth crossing political borders and 40% of the world’s population relying on these shared resources, transboundary agreements are needed now more than ever. But the new analysis suggests that new forms and international arrangements are needed and old agreements may need to be renegotiated in the context of a changing climate.

You can download the report (PDF, 1.19 MB) here.

For the complete article, please see the Pacific Institute.