The Watery Road to Copenhagen Livecast: Water & Climate Change Symposium!

30/10/09 09:37
Looking back across the last twenty years, there have been several notable climate change policy and science events. The 1992 Rio Convention helped define the shape of climate change policy for the next decade and created the IPCC as a science advisory board. The Ministerial Declaration of the Hague on Water Security in Twenty-First Century captured many key concepts on water and climate change, linking policy, water management, and the need for a new paradigm. And the Brisbane Convention on environmental flows in 2007 marked a major consensus between policymakers and ecologists and hydrologists that flow regime was the most important aspect of freshwater ecosystems to focus on for sustainable use. This is a good time for reflection on where we've come, and where freshwater conservation and development needs to go next. And fortunately, the Fuller Symposium on 3 and 4 November — titled Securing Water for People and Nature in a Changing Climate — is just in time.

The Fuller Symposiom is two days of social and natural scientists, major international organizations such as the World Bank, and policymakers talking about where we are now. The timing is perfect: in December, the UNFCCC convenes arguably the most important climate change policy meeting since 1996, when the Kyoto Protocol was negotiated. This meeting is in Copenhagen, Denmark, and I'll be attending to help represent my organization's views there. Trust me: Copenhagen will be lurking behind the Fuller Symposium on both days. And there will also be a more direct connection, since I've been asked to make a direct statement from the floor of the Fuller Symposium to a pre-Copenhagen planning and agenda-setting meeting held in Barcelona on 3 November.

Some more details:

Securing Water for Nature and People in a Changing Climate
November 3rd & 4th, 2009Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
The Fuller Symposium itself will be held in a venerable and very large (500 person capacity!) conference hall at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. Unfortunately, I gather the live venue itself is full to capacity with registrants. A live webcast, however, will be available. I've heard rumors of having the ability to twitter questions to speakers, but I'm not sure about that.

Please enjoy the show!



Registration for the live webcast: http://www.worldwildlife.org/science/fellowships/fuller/webcast.html

List of speakers, agenda, and overview: http://www.worldwildlife.org/science/fellowships/fuller/fuller-symposium-2009.html

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