1. "Recent Experiences of ESCAP in
Promoting Green Growth & Developing
stronger Partnership with GWP"
Salmah Zakaria
Energy Security and Water Resources Section
Include works of
Rae Kwon Chung, Ti LeHuu, Ermina Sokou and others
from the Environment Development Division
UN ESCAP, Bangkok
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

2. 3 Messages
 Asia Pacific facing water insecurity,
through multiple challenges/hotspots
 Green Growth required for sustainable
development, in a world with global
environmental limitation
 ESCAP/GWP working together – a
strategic relationship for the Asia
Pacific region
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

3. Outline of presentations
 Water Security and Green Growth
 Climate Change – manifestation of
an unconnected world??
 Synergistic Efforts ESCAP/GWP -
can help support Asia-Pacific needs
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

4. Water Security and Green Growth
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

5. Water Challenges in Asia Pacific
 Multiple Challenges in water sector
 Increasing water scarcity threat, High water utilization,
Deteriorating water quality, Poor water quality and low water
endowment, Flood-prone countries, Cyclone-prone countries,
Drought-prone countries, Ecosystem changes/ Climate change risk,
Poor access to drinking water, Poor access to sanitation, etc
 Using IWRM concept
 Scaled down to implementation at local areas
 Water security, water insecurity and hotspots, piloting
implementation of eco-efficient water infrastructure,
community water shed management, etc
 Scaled up to a more encompassing platform/concept
 Green growth
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

6. Water Security, Definition & Index
 Has been the focus of ESCAP for
some time
 Should reflect achievements of sustainable
socio-economic development
 Analyse on the index and standards to be
measured
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

7. Water Security Definition in UN
 Lack of commonly accepted definition
of ―water security‖ by the UN General
Assembly
 Difficult to bring water in political agenda
for international cooperation
 Minimal problems when forums are not
inter-governmental
 Where decisions or recommendations will not
be legally binding
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

8. Water Insecurity Index (WII)
 Water Insecurity Index is a measure for the
lack of capacity to deliver the expected
outcomes from investments and
management in water resources for socially
inclusive, environmentally sustainable economic
development
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

9. Water Insecurity Index (WII)
 The framework for WII to be based
 Capacity (or lack of capacity) to deliver
 Water availability and water index
 Risk management capacity
 Investment capacity
 Expected Development outcomes
 ―Composite outcomes”: household
water security, poverty reduction, healthy
people, healthy ecosystems, low conflict,
economic development
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

10. Water Hotspots
 To better focus and prioritize regional
action
 ESCAP identified hotspots of multiple
challenges
 Hotspots - countries or areas or ecosystems
with overlapping challenges of
 poor access to water and sanitation,
deteriorating water quality, limited water
availability and increased exposure to climate
change and water-related disasters
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

11. Hotspots
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

12. Water security and green growth
 Ensuring long term water security
 Must concurrently focus also on
System/Environmental Health ie should be
ecological-based
 Green Growth look from the position
of global environmental limitation
 The need to migrate from current market based
to ecological based economy
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

13. Why Green Growth
 Address global limited ecological carrying
capacity
 Meet unmet basic needs and the MDGs
 increasingly convergent challenges—food, water and energy
insecurity; persistent economic uncertainty; and climate change
impacts.
 hard won gains in reducing poverty and improving people’s lives are in
danger of being reversed
 Without accommodating ecological carrying
capacity, the sustainable growth is not feasible
 Improving eco-efficient of economy as a whole
is a key element for Sustainable Development
RK Chung: ASEAN-ISIS 24th Asia-Pacific Roundtable,
7-9June 2010 Kuala Lumpur
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

14. Green Growth Principles
BUSINESS AS USUAL
(Grow first, clean-up later)
 GREEN GROWTH
Market price ≠ Ecological price
Economic efficiency < Ecological efficiency
Quantity of growth  Quality of growth
RK Chung: ASEAN-ISIS 24th Asia-Pacific Roundtable,
7-9June 2010 Kuala Lumpur
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

15. Green Growth Goal
Quantity Quality of
Eco-efficiency
of Growth Growth
 From Market Price to Ecological Price
 From Quantity of growth to Quality of Growth
RK Chung: ASEAN-ISIS 24th Asia-Pacific Roundtable,
7-9June 2010 Kuala Lumpur
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

16. Human Development Index and Domestic
Material Consumption
per capita, 1995 and 2005
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

17. Green Growth – Sustainable
development
 De Boer - National Geographic News,
Published November 26, 2010
 the green growth stimulus packages
of China and Korea, clearest signal of
what is to come
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

18. Green Growth Development in Water
Resources Management in ESCAP
 ESCAP’s member countries accepted Green
Growth as a Policy option at the MCED5, in
March 2005 in Seoul
 ESCAP and its partners developed Regional Capacity
Development Programme for Green Growth Policy Tools
 http://www.greengrowth.org/index.asp
 Endorsement of RIP (Regional Implementation
Plan) on green growth at MCED6, in Astana
Kazakhstan, 0ct 2010
 Green growth road map – currently being
developed/researched
 Including articulating the development of
possible/alternatives migration paths to ecological base
economy
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

19. Climate Change – manifestation of an
unconnected world??
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

20. Significance of Climate change to
water systems
 Significant change in quantity of flow, will
affect
 Design sizing of infrastructure; culverts, bridges, canals,
dams, etc
 Existing operations and maintenance: water related systems -
floods, water supply, irrigation etc
 Shifting rainfall patterns, between 1-2 weeks
 Affect planting season; harvesting should not meet floods!
 Droughts need to be avoided
 Affect reservoir fillings, draw-downs, operations &
maintenance
 Other general operations and maintenance of water
infrastructure and systems
 Extreme and recurring floods and droughts
 Health implication
 Social and economic activities
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

21. Climate Change
 Became significant with more energy used,
deforestation, production of biomass, agro-
industrial products, etc
 Start ?? - Industrial revolution of 18th Century
 Mostly in the North
 Followed now – lifestyle change, including urbanisation
 Everywhere: The South brings with it huge population,
while seemingly following similar development foot-paths
 Impact from Climate Change affect all
particularly
 the most vulnerable and least resilience
 majority of which are in the developing world
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

22. Climate Change Negotiations
 Focus on
 The source for climate Change
 Mostly mitigation, reduced use of easily available
energy; technology for clean alternative energy – still
expensive
 The developing countries, with huge
population
 emulate the developed countries to industrialise
and urbanise – emitting more GHGs
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

23. Bubbles of GHGs emissions
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

24. Failure of Multilateral Negotiations
 In both WTO’s Doha and UNFCCC, Fundamental
Negotiation/bargaining problem
 ParticipatingNations do not
clearly see benefits to their
nation from the outcomes
Peter Lloyd, University of Melbourne, - Public Lecture, ESCAP, 23rd Feb2011
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

25. Four steps to improve Multilateral
Negotiations
 Improved analyses of the benefits and
costs of proposals
 More preparations on proposals to be
considered
 Apparently, every time, the next negotiation, start from
where it was left previously
 Statement of Clear Objectives
 New methods of negotiations
 Currently: complex agenda, attitudes and bottom up
approach ( will depend on national mitigation schemes)
Peter Lloyd, University of Melbourne, - Public Lecture, ESCAP, 23rd Feb2011
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

26. ESCAP’s Current Activities
in CC Adaptation
 Strengthened awareness and knowledge on
Green Growth, water security/insecurity
and Eco-efficient approaches
 Eco-efficiency water infrastructure
 Supporting development of appropriate policies and
piloting community-based projects in the region, to
improve resilience to local communities
 Developing Generic Guidelines
 for CC Adaptation vis-à-vis water
security/insecurity and green growth
 Developing roadmap for migration to green
growth economy
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

27. Synergistic Efforts ESCAP/GWP -can
help support Asia-Pacific needs
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

28. Synergistic Working Areas
 GWPO regions in Asia-Pacific
 4 of 13 GWP Regions are in Asia Pacific
 South Asia (SA)
 Southeast Asia (SEA)
 Central Asia – the Caucasus
 China
 Good Practices to learn from other GWPO regions
outside Asia Pacific - Central and South America,
Africa, Middle East and Eastern Europe
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

29. ESCAP/GWP -Localising ideas
 ESCAP
 Piloting new ideas/concepts in member countries;
working with governments, private sectors, NGOs
and communities
 Working with consultants to research current
status and future directives
 GWPO
 Similar objectives – working with sub-regional
outfits, which share many common needs
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

30. ESCAP/GWP past histories
 ESCAP and GWP
 Developed, with FAO – SPM in IWRM
 Supported GWPSEA Water forums and
dialogues
 GWP in ESCAP events
 MIR EGM
 Other dialogues
 Many common Partners
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

31. Potential joint working areas
 Current
 IWRM – Monitoring of Investments and Results
 Climate Change, Food and Water Security
 Potential ???
 Working through the water-energy-food nexus initiatives
including MIR
 Waste Water Revolution – pollution of water bodies is a major
problem in Asia Pacific
 Green growth – migrating from market to an ecological-based
economy
 Rules of Law – rights to
 Access to safe water – community pilot projects, impact of CC to
access
 Rights to climate change adaptation ??
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka

32. THANK YOU
GWP Regional Workshop, Climate Change, Food and Water Security
24 - 25 February 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka