Panel Discussion
Water Risks in Global Perspectives
9:15 – 10:45, Hotel Golf, Libertas Hall
Speakers:
- Ambassador Mohamed Elorabi, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee at the Egyptian House of Representatives, Egypt
- Mrs Pamela Goldsmith Jones, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Senate of Canada
- Mr Tom Harvey, Co-Chair of the US Water Partnership, United States of America
- Ms Susanne Melde, Research and Policy Officer on Migration and Environment at the International Organization for Migration
- Mr Markus Reiterer, Secretary General of the Alpine Convention
- Dr Danilo Türk, Former President of the Republic of Slovenia and Chairman of the Global High-Level Panel on Water and Peace, Slovenia
- Ambassador Pio Wennubst, Assistant Director General and Head of Directorate Global Cooperation at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Switzerland
Moderated by: Dr Angela Wilkinson, Independent, United Kingdom
The 2015 World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked water crises as a top global risk. The population affected by lack of drinking water, pollution, catastrophic floods and droughts as well as problems related to cross-border water management have increasingly been identified as serious threats to peace and sustainable development. Security of water supply is not an isolated threat, but is in many ways related to the security of food and energy supply, while global climate changes are continuously increasing these risks. Migration is another important consequence of threatened water security. Global trends will continue to aggravate this threat. It is therefore of vital importance for the international community to establish adequate instruments and mechanisms to enable effective responses to the challenges posed by these factors. Strong political will and incentives for its mobilisation are particularly important in positioning water as an essential factor of cooperation and instrument of peace.
To download the panel discussion backgrounder and guiding questions click here.