COP26: Water for Climate Complete Programme

Here is my list of all the sessions being held under the Water Pavillon at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow next week.

Monday, 1 November
8:30 AM GMT - The Race to Zero and Resilience, unleashing water’s power
10:00 AM GMT - Water, Extremes, and Climate Change: Insights from IPCC WG I Report
2:00 PM GMT - Water for Adaptation: Showcasing results from the Adaptation Action Coalition water sector workstream
3:30 PM GMT - Water and Mitigation: From Science to Climate Action
5:30 PM GMT - Water action as answer to climate change – collaborative action for resilience
6:30 PM GMT - Performance by Låpsley
6:45 PM GMT - Opening ceremony of the Water Pavilion

Tuesday, 2 November
9:00 AM GMT - Climate finance to support adaptation of basic services and build community resilience: water, sanitation and hygiene
10:00 AM GMT - Parched Power – Assessing physical climate risks for power generation project portfolios
10:35 AM GMT - Making Finance Flow: turning on the taps for water and climate solutions
11:10 AM GMT - The Resilient Water Accelerator: Ensuring Resilience and Comprehensive Water Security for the Most Climate Vulnerable
11:35 AM GMT - Towards an International High-Level Panel on Climate Resilient Water Investments for Africa - Unlocking Finance for Climate-Resilient Water Projects
12:45 PM GMT - Macroeconomic Resilience: Making Water-Sensitive Strategic Choices for Growth
1:35 PM GMT - Accelerating water-related transparency and action for the financial sector
2:20 PM GMT - Shaping the Water Management Global Agenda: The Value of ESG Data for the Private Sector
3:05 PM GMT - Accelerating the Just Water Transition – disclosure, decision ready data, investment
4:00 PM GMT - Launch of the Water Stewardship Acceleration Forum

Wednesday, 3 November
9:00 AM GMT - Scene setter on Water-Energy nexus: Fueling Synergies in the Water-Energy Nexus
11:00 AM GMT - Can We Make Hydropower Resilient to Global Change?
12:00 PM GMT - Enhancing Capacity of Landlocked Developing Countries to Address Climate Change, energy and water-related challenges during COVID-19 era: Experiences and Solutions
1:00 PM GMT - Meeting Renewable Energy Targets While Keeping Rivers Resilient
3:00 PM GMT - Hydropower Development - providing renewable and environmentally friendly energy, ensuring long-term water availability and preventing water related natural disasters
4:30 PM GMT - CEO Water Mandate energy event

Thursday, 4 November
8:00 AM GMT - Opening session: Water-wise nature-based solutions to turn climate risks into opportunities for action
9:00 AM GMT - Hope comes out of the blue: Inspiring climate action from source to sea
10:30 AM GMT - Creating bankable climate adaptation projects with NbS
12:00 PM GMT - Design and planning of NbS to address climate change
1:30 PM GMT - NbS and Climate Change: Harnessing the power of ecosystems for adaptation and mitigation
3:30 PM GMT - Scaling up Nature-based Solutions for adaptation to climate change
5:30 PM GMT - A Call to Action: Building Water and Climate Resilience through Nature-Based Solutions

Friday, 5 November
7:30 AM GMT - Moving Towards Digital Inclusion: Needs and Next Steps
9:00 AM GMT - Youth Empowerment
10:20 AM GMT - Youth Amplify Impact thorough Local and Global Connections
11:30 AM GMT - Marrakech Partnership Water Action Event
2:30 PM GMT - Today’s choices, Tomorrow’s Impact - Youth Action in the Water and Climate Nexus
4:00 PM GMT - The Canada Water Agency in a Global Context: The Frontier of Water Governance
5:30 PM GMT - Get energized with a constructive narrative on water and climate through fun and play

Saturday, 6 November
9:00 AM GMT - Adaption: Building adaptive capacity through climate resilient water, sanitation and hygiene solutions
11:40 AM GMT - Policy, Accountability and Monitoring: Climate adaptation: Needs and opportunities for water, sanitation and hygiene
1:20 PM GMT - Partnerships and Finance
3:30 PM GMT - Mitigation

Monday, 8 November
6:00 AM GMT - Virtual Event: Water for Climate Adaptation: Asia-Pacific Perspectives
8:00 AM GMT - Opening Welcome
8:05 AM GMT - Fair water footprints in the race to climate resilience
10:00 AM GMT - Water and Climate: on the Road to the UN 2023 Water Conference
11:30 AM GMT - Water ChangeMakers Forge Frontiers for Resilience
1:00 PM GMT - Resilient Together: Water and Climate Adaptation Collective Action from the Private Sector
2:30 PM GMT - Enhancing National Climate Resilience: Climate Action & Support Transparency Training (CASTT) Through the Adaptation Academy
4:00 PM GMT - A hidden treasure: Groundwater as a tool for climate adaptation and resilience
5:30 PM GMT - Preventing Shocks and Stresses from becoming Crises: The Water Resilience Assessment Framework (WRAF)
7:00 PM GMT - Launch of new Resilience Fund

Tuesday, 9 November
7:00 AM GMT - Virtual Asia Hub programming
9:15 AM GMT - Empowering women across the water-food-climate nexus
10:15 AM GMT - Water and Climate Smart Agriculture for Adaptation
11:30 AM GMT - Agriculture as a climate sink not source – Mitigation through farm actions
1:00 PM GMT - High-level session - Water Resilient Food Systems: an essential pathway in the face of climate change
2:45 PM GMT - Climate action for shared prosperity through aquatic food systems: Eyes on SIDS and beyond
4:00 PM GMT - Water, nutrition and climate change: how can we act across sectors?
5:00 PM GMT - Salinity and climate smart agriculture: Understand, connect and act now!

Wednesday, 10 November
7:00 AM GMT - Virtual Asia Hub programming
9:00 AM GMT - Climate vulnerability and water resilience in Small Islands Developing States (SIDS)
10:00 AM GMT - Drought mitigation through innovation – the case of water management for Windhoek, Namibia
11:00 AM GMT - Reducing Climate Risk: Exploring the Role of Water-Related Adaptation Responses, their effectiveness and maladaptation + Strengthening Drought Management in Pursuit of the SDGs: Science, Policy, and Inclusivity
12:00 PM GMT - How Can We Integrate Technologies and Gender Responsive Strategies into Climate Risk Insurance Solutions? Plus Strengthening Drought Management in Pursuit of the SDGs: Science, Policy, and Inclusivity
1:00 PM GMT - Coastal Risk Management
2:00 PM GMT - Planning for uncertainty through climate-resilient water management approaches
3:00 PM GMT - Living with climate change; how systemizing predictions of water conditions helps us adapt to a changing climate
4:00 PM GMT - A new approach for hydro-climatic risk management

Thursday, 11 November
9:00 AM GMT - CITIES & INFRASTRUCTURE Keynote: TBC
9:30 AM GMT - Water: The Foundation of our Cities
11:05 AM GMT - A net-zero circular water future for cities
12:45 PM GMT - Adaptation and resilience in urban water: Convergence of water and sanitation and climate action
2:00 PM GMT - Adaptation and resilience in urban water: Role of cities and utilities in achieving the NDCs
3:45 PM GMT - Adaptation and resilience in urban water: Lessons from practice
5:15 PM GMT - Joint Water Pavilion & Resilience Hub Event: Water Resilience in Cities and the Built Environment

Friday, 12 November
8:00 AM GMT - Transboundary cooperation and Climate security day opening
8:45 AM GMT - Climate Change, Water, Conflict and Peace
9:45 AM GMT - Water, climate, and borders: The role of River Basin Cooperation for Climate Resilience
11:00 AM GMT - Transboundary wetlands - from mitigation to adaptation
12:00 PM GMT - Water and Climate Change in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH): Experiences from India, Nepal and Bangladesh
1:00 PM GMT - Inclusion: as an enabler of integration between water and climate
2:15 PM GMT - Climatic Water Challenges: Building Water Stewardship Pathways in Latin America
3:30 PM GMT - International cooperation on Water and Climate interlinkages for creating a resilient future / Concrete water solutions for climate towards the 9th World Water Forum
4:45 PM GMT - Call to action and closing session: In the face of climate change, how can we act faster and stronger to adapt in the water sector? / Fragile Flows: Tackling climate security and adaptation challenges through water systems

(Summarised from here)

Learning Lessons On The Use Of Models During COVID19

Greg Clark is the Chair of the Science and Technology Committee which has, along with the Health and Social Care Committee, been hearing oral evidence in their joint inquiry into lessons to be learned from the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

He made the following observation during one of his questions yesterday to Matt Hancock, the UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Care:

[…]It seems to me that everyone—certainly most people in the system—got bogged down in the modelling and the complexity, and did not step back to see the crude maths of it, if you like […]

Full transcript here.

Compare and Contrast: Boil-Water Advisory Edition

About 390,000 Texans are still under boil water advisories from the winter storm (March 2nd, 2021)

About 390,000 Texas residents were still under boil water advisories as of midday Monday, almost two weeks after a winter storm slammed large swaths of the South.

The Texas Commission of Environmental Quality (TCEQ) website shows there are 399 active boil water notices in effect on Monday, while 1,780 notices have already been lifted.

Members of Neskantaga come home today to boil water advisory (Dec 18, 2020)

After two months of living in hotel rooms, members of a remote First Nation will begin returning home today to clean tap water for the first time in 25 years.

But the community’s public health officer says the boil-water advisory, which has been in place since 1995, will remain in place because of lingering problems with the water plant’s performance — problems the community warns could grow worse without more help from the federal government.

Neskantaga, a Northern Ontario community of about 300 people, has been under a boil-water advisory for longer than any other First Nation in Canada.

Also, for your consideration, this passage from the article about Texas:

Pastor Marilyn Davis spent her Sunday picking up cases of water at the Mesquite Police Department to deliver to members. “It’s been very, very hard,” Davis told the affiliate.

“I live in an apartment complex and when we didn’t have any water it was very difficult for us to make it. So many people in one place.”

Now that she has her water back, she wants to make sure other people have what they need. [emphasis added]

Can Covid-19 Spread Via Building Pipes?

As I explained a couple of weeks ago, it seems plausible that the 2019 Coronavirus (now officially designated as Covid-19) may spread e.g. vertically through a building of flats via the various piping systems. This is based on a theory of what happened in a cluster of SARS cases in Hong Kong in 2003.

CNN and others are discussing this today after officials in Hong Kong partially evacuated a building where this is again a possibility.