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ePaper created 2015-12-01, 11:33:23 | version 1.43.00
IN FOCUS akzente 3/1524 » WATER SUPPLY Project: Adaptation of water resources management IN URBAN AREAS to climate change Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development Lead executing agency: National Water Authority, Peru Term: 2014 to 2019 PERU Climate change is impacting on Peru’s water resources, causing more frequent flooding in some regions and water scarcity in others. GIZ is assisting Peru to adapt to these changed conditions, for example by reusing treated wastewater. www.giz.de/en/worldwide/28610.html 3 EXAMPLES OF WORK AT GIZ TRANSPORT Project: Towards climate-friendly transport technologies Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety Lead executing agencies: Transport ministries in various countries Term: 2013 to 2016 GLOBAL The transport sector produces 27 per cent, and is thus the second-largest source, of all energy-based CO2 emissions. In order to counteract this trend, GIZ is advising various countries, including China, Peru and Indonesia, on ways of making their transport systems more climate-friendly. www.transport-namas.org 4 ambitious adaptation programme. Peru – which, in 2014, took the radical step of enshrining its National Plan for Disaster Risk Management in law – must protect its cities from the growing threat of landslides and floods, which are affecting the Cusco region ever more frequently. Almost every year, meltwater from the Andean glaciers and floodwater from swollen rivers dur- ing the rainy season destroy homes and paralyse the local economy. Severe melting of the Andean glaciers has already occurred, and with warming of 2° C, up to 90 per cent of the glacier mass will be lost very quickly. Cusco is therefore reengineering its urban landscape: the plan sets out dozens of measures, from resettlement of residents and the construction of a new drainage sys- tem to erosion protection on slopes and flood defences in the historic old city. Radical transformation: still a long way off In light of these and other examples, the question is how climate change can be decelerated. The targets set in the Kyoto Protocol – currently the only legally binding mech- anism to limit greenhouse gas emissions and due to expire in 2020 – have been exceeded: the 36 countries concerned have collectively reduced their carbon dioxide emissions by 24 per cent instead of the agreed four per cent. How- ever, most of these reductions were achieved as a con- sequence of economic collapse in the former Eastern bloc countries. Viewed globally, a very different picture emerges: emissions have actually increased by one to two per cent annually. A genuine strategic restructuring of energy systems is only gradually beginning. This year’s G7 summit at Schloss Elmau offered some hope: the leading industri- alised countries, which are responsible for around a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions, pledged to phase out fossil fuel use by the end of the century. There is talk of a ‘fundamental transformation’ – an energy revolu- tion in favour of renewables. And according to the IPCC, this can be achieved at minimal cost – just 0.06 per cent of global GDP growth. But in reality, this transformation is still a long way off. The world’s 1,800 or so energy companies are investing colossal sums – more than USD 200 billion in 2014 – in solar and wind power, but they are also still investing in oil, gas and coal. As a result, global warming – driven by greenhouse gases – continues unabated. That’s why so many hopes rest on the climate conference in Paris. The aim is a new global climate