Expert Group Meeting on Climate Change

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 25-28 October, 2010

This Meeting was approved the Governing Body of INWRDAM during its 7th Meeting last April and INWRDAM proposed to conduct this meeting to alert its member states governments to the issue of climate change possible impacts on water resources. The Meeting was funded by the Islamic Development Bank, Jeddah (IDB) and more than 20 experts from 10 OIC countries participated in the Meeting.

The presentations by participated experts were on one of more of the following themes in the context of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) counties:

1- Global debate on assessment of climate change impacts on water resources.

2- Consequences of increased competition over water (within countries and among neighboring countries).

3- Case studies from OIC or similar regions on climate change and impacts on hydrological cycles such as sea level rise, floods and droughts, groundwater depletion.

4- Assessment of impacts, adaptation and vulnerability to climate change in OIC regions (OIC regions are: Asian, Middle East and Africa).

5- Adaptive capacity of OIC countries to possible impacts of climate change on water resources

6- Other issues proposed by invited experts.

The following were the outcomes and recommendations from the Meeting as were approved by the participated experts:

Conclusions and Recommendations of the Expert Group Meeting on:

“Climate Change and Possible Impacts on Water Resources in OIC Countries”

25-28 October 2010, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 

Preamble:

Based on the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and hundreds of references quoted in the international literature, we can categorically state that the countries belonging to the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) countries are in many ways among the most vulnerable in the world to the potential impacts of climate change, the most significant of which are increased average temperatures, less and more erratic precipitation, and sea level rise (SLR), in regions which already suffer from aridity, recurrent drought and water scarcity. Therefore, the key impacts of climate change are associated with duration of extreme climate events such as droughts, floods, and tropical storms.

Severe weather and climate conditions have already started to appear in the OIC member states, for instance, floods in Jeddah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have inflected loss of many lives, property and road infrastructure which is estimated at SR 3.5 billion (US$932 million) and the floods of the Sind river in Pakistan resulted in loss of hundreds of lives and billions of dollars worth of damages.

The OIC member states make negligible contribution to polluting the world and contribute merely less than 5% to the global green house gases emissions. However, the impact of climate change on the fragile environment of some of the OIC arid regions and its people is expected to be immense, which demands urgent planning for adaptation measures. A main concern would be that OIC wet regions would become more wet and dry regions become drier. This could lead to more pressure on food security and human health.

Climate change creates both risks and opportunities worldwide. By understanding, planning for and adapting to a changing climate, institutions, individuals and societies can take advantage of opportunities and reduce risks. Adapting to climate change involves reducing exposure and sensitivity and increasing adaptive capacity.

Climate change may impact projects and programs in a variety of sectors and operational areas and incorporating vulnerability and adaptation steps from project inception will reduce negative impacts at implementation stages.

The experts and scientists attending the expert group meeting on: “climate change (CC) and possible impacts on water resources in OIC countries” was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia during October 25-28, 2010, represented the main OIC geographical regions and being aware of the scientific facts of the possible impacts and need for adaptation and mitigation measures to combat CC, recommend to IDB and to other relevant OIC institutions the following set of actions: 

1.  Appreciated IDB actions and programs for helping those OIC countries that faced natural disasters and related emergencies particularly the Tsunami in Indonesia during December 2004 and the flooding of the Sind River in Pakistan during summer 2010.

2.  Recommends that IDB loans to its member countries be complemented with standard conditions urging for concrete steps by borrowing countries leading to adaptation to CC and mitigation of its impacts on their water security.

3.  Urges IDB to further increase its support to its member countries to enable them to improve water use efficiency, primarily irrigation water use efficiency and implementation of an integrated water resources management.

4.  Urges IDB to continue it’s support to both INWRDAM and OIC Secretariat to enable them to finalize the OIC Water Vision proposal which could lead to increased cooperation among OIC countries in a better management of water resources.

5.  Urges all OIC countries to benefit from the experiences that exist in a number of OIC countries on CC model development, downscaling and prediction. Malaysia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are examples of OIC countries that achieved scientific progress with respect assessment and adaptation to CC such as flood control and global circulation model development and they are willing to share their know how in this regard with other OIC countries.

6.  Encourages OIC countries to initiate collectively a process leading to the ratification and implementation of the UN Convention on Non-navigational Transboundary Waters so that riparian countries can manage shared water resources more equitably leading to a win-win situation.

7.  Encourages OIC countries to implement the OIC S&T Vision 1441 as means to facilitate implementation of green house gases reduction measures and diversification of energy sources to include more of renewable and nuclear energy mixes.

8.  Encourages OIC countries to develop early warning systems and utilization of already available modern communication facilities (SMS messaging) for early warning and disaster prevention and preparedness.

9.  Appeal to IDB to provide more scholarships to researchers from OIC countries to enable them continue their higher education studies on subjects related to CC.

The OIC experts that participated in the above mentioned meeting in Kuala Lumpur believe that implementation of the above set of actions could help OIC countries adapt to CC and reduce its impacts on their countries.

- Location:

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

- Date:

25-28 October, 2010