Cryosphere and water: from the One Planet – Polar Summit to the One Water Summit

At the World Water Forum in Bali, the Secretariat general of the One Planet Summits will be organizing a side-event on the French pavilion, highlighting the crucial link between the collapse of the cryosphere and the global freshwater crisis, following the path of a drop of water from the glaciers to the ocean.

The disintegration of glaciers and high plateaus is having global repercussions on populations, ecosystems as a whole, rising sea levels and water resources. 69% of freshwater fit for human consumption is found in glaciers, half of which will disappear over the course of the century.

Climate change is accelerating the melting of glaciers, sentinels of the climate and collapsing water towers, profoundly altering the global water cycle and distribution. The increasing variability of the water cycle is also the most visible expression of climate change, and must be at the heart of our adaptation policies. In 9 cases out of 10, climate change adaptation issues are linked to water management.

Water is already a daily concern for most populations, who are faced with both water scarcity – of which drought is the most serious expression – and excess water due to the deregulation of the water cycle, such as floods and heavy rainfall.

France thus wishes, within the framework of the World Water Forum, to revisit the commitments of the One Planet – Polar Summit, met in Paris in November 2023. The summit, organized by the President of the Republic, for the first time acknowledged the collapse of the cryosphere in its entirety, in both poles and glaciers. To address this major issue, the Paris Call for Glaciers and Poles, signed by 34 countries, UNESCO and the World Meteorological Organization, supports the launch of a decade of polar and glaciers sciences. The aim is now, in partnership with UNESCO, WMO and the countries involved, to expand the coalition, with a view to adopting the resolution at UNGA 79 in September 2024.

This side-event will also present the first steps and ambitious objectives of the One Water Summit, which the President of the French Republic and the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan will jointly organize. In order to raise water resource risks to heads of State and government level, the event will mobilize all stakeholders to prepare this demanding agenda.

Other important partners for the summit, such as the World Bank and the United Nations, will also be able to discuss common approaches to these water and cryosphere issues.