Transcript and climate change

EU WATER FRAMEWORK
DIRECTIVE AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Jovanka Ignjatović, REC CEE
Budapest, October 2007
CONTENT
1. EUROPEAN WATER POLICY
2. EU WFD IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS
3. CIS WORK PROGRAMME 2007-2009
JOVANKA IGNJATOVIĆ, REC HO
GREEN PAPER
OPTIONS FOR EU ACTION: 4 PILLARS
The first pillar: Early action in the EU
Early action covers policy options in the following areas:
 Integrate adaptation when implementing existing and
upcoming legislation and policies
 Integrate adaptation into existing Community funding
programmes
 Develop new policy responses
JOVANKA IGNJATOVIĆ, REC HO
GREEN PAPER - Affected Sectors
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Agriculture and rural development
Industry & services
Energy
Transport
Health
WATER
Marine and fisheries
Ecosystems and biodiversity
Other natural resources
JOVANKA IGNJATOVIĆ, REC HO
EUROPEAN WATER POLICY
EXISTING AND UPCOMING EU WATER LEGISLATION
1. Water Framework Directive
2. Marine Strategy Directive
3. Floods Directive
4. Water Scarcity and Drought
JOVANKA IGNJATOVIĆ, REC HO
EUROPEAN WATER POLICY - MSD
 MSD will structure marine environment protection in Europe
 Climate was fully taken into consideration
 Main contribution to adaptation will be through reducing
pressures placed on marine ecosystems
 Good Environmental Status’ of Europe's marine environment
would create a buffer to cope with the impact of Climate Change
on the marine environment.
JOVANKA IGNJATOVIĆ, REC HO
EUROPEAN WATER POLICY - FD
 Adaptation to climate change is already built in with the 6 year
planning cycles
 Climate change scenarios and extreme flood events should be
taken into account in flood risk management plans in order to
reduce risks
 Assessment and management of floods will focus on:
o prevention, protection and preparedness
o Soft non-structural measures should be prioritised
o Hard structural flood defences will continue to be important
to cope with extreme flooding
JOVANKA IGNJATOVIĆ, REC HO
WFD - Where we are now?
JOVANKA IGNJATOVIĆ, REC HO
WFD
 Provides a consistent framework for integrated water resources
management
 It does not address climate change directly
 Climate change can thus not be inserted in the RBMPs on an
ad hoc basis, but should be dealt with carefully and wellplanned. And that is exactly what the WFD offers sufficient
tools for
 The challenge will be to incorporate measures to cope with
climate change as part of its implementation, starting with the
first planning cycle for 2009
JOVANKA IGNJATOVIĆ, REC HO
WFD - RBMP
RBMP ELEMENTS
 The characteristics of the river basin
 A review of the human impact on the status of waters in the
basin
 An estimation of the effect of existing measures and the
remaining "gap" to meet the objectives
 A list of additional measures designed to meet the objectives
JOVANKA IGNJATOVIĆ, REC HO
WFD & CC
PRESSURES
 Climate change should be addressed as one of the pressures
affecting the water
 Currently, the oher pressures are in most cases assessed as more
important than climate change impacts
 These pressures are often related to water-dependent sectors like
agriculture, navigation or hydropower
 The pressures from these so-called non-climatic drivers will
in most cases be made worse by climate change
JOVANKA IGNJATOVIĆ, REC HO
WFD & CC
RBMP
 The 6 year management cycle, in which a RBMP and PoM, has
to be established, allows MS to take the effects of climate
change into account.
 Consideration of climate change impacts in the first cycle will
help to reduce the risk of selecting measures in the first RBMP,
which later may turn out to be less effective.
 However, in the second RBMP (due for 2015) targeted climate
change measures should be included. This concerns measures
both addressing water quantity and pollution
JOVANKA IGNJATOVIĆ, REC HO
WFD & CC
ASSESSMENT METHODS
for good status will have to be further developed in the light of
the predicted changes in climatic conditions.
REFERENCE CONDITIONS
It can be assumed that in certain regions, reference conditions
for certain types will change. This should be addressed in the
six-year planning cycle.
SURVEILLANCE MONITORING
 useful instrument to detect these changes
 provide information for the assessment of long-term
changes resulting from widespread anthropogenic activity.
JOVANKA IGNJATOVIĆ, REC HO
WFD & CC
EXEMPTIONS
 The WFD allows exemptions for the application of to the
achievement of good status of EU waters
 These exemptions can only be used under certain conditions, for
example no further deterioration in the status of the affected
water body.
 A temporary deterioration is however allowed for in exceptional
circumstances that could not reasonably have been foreseen
 Under certain conditions, failure to achieve good status or failure
to prevent deterioration of status is allowed for new
modifications, such as flood defence measures.
JOVANKA IGNJATOVIĆ, REC HO
WFD & CC
ECONOMIC INSTRUMENTS
 User pays principle should be applied across all sectors,
including households, transport, energy, agriculture and tourism
This will provide strong incentives to reduce water consumption
and increase efficiency of use
 Water pricing policies should be established by 2010
 Recovery of the costs of water services has to be taken into
account.
 The fact that water is becoming a scarce resource should
therefore already be reflected in economic terms
JOVANKA IGNJATOVIĆ, REC HO
WFD & CC
LINKS TO OTHER POLICY AREAS
 WFD establishes strong links to other policy areas, e.g.
agriculture and navigation
 Integration in the planning processes, will have significant
potential for improving adaptation strategies
JOVANKA IGNJATOVIĆ, REC HO
WFD - CIS
FOLLOW UP – COMMISSION ACTIONS
Action 1:
Renewing partnership
o Common Implementation Strategy
o Follow up and feedback to Member States
Action 2:
Ensure integration on EU level
Action 3:
Promote use of economic instruments
Action 4:
Address climate change in water policy
Action 5:
Fully establish WISE by 2010
JOVANKA IGNJATOVIĆ, REC HO
CIS 2007-2009
JOVANKA IGNJATOVIĆ, REC HO
FURTHER ACTION AT EU LEVEL
“How can we ensure that EU water and marine policy can be
implemented in the best possible way?”
1. COMMON INTEGRATED APPROACH
including all relevant sectors
 Proper water demand management
 Paying the right price for water
 Take into account costs and benefits when discussing adaptation
measures
 Make future infrastructure climate resistant
 Keep in mind possible negative feedbacks from mitigation
measures
JOVANKA IGNJATOVIĆ, REC HO
WORK PROGRAMME
WP TO HELP FACTORING CLIMATE CHANGE INTO THE
RBMP
Common Implementation Strategy for the Water Framework
Directive
“Work Programme 2007- 09”
Final mandate for an activity on “Climate Change and the EU
Water Policy”
Phase: 2007- 09
JOVANKA IGNJATOVIĆ, REC HO
“CC AND THE EU WATER POLICY”
OBJECTIVES
1. Identify best uses of current and existing EU water legislation.
 To identify impacts of climate change on qualitative and
quantitative issues in different regions of the EU
 To identify the climate relevant gaps (e.g. pressures and
impacts) in the Article 5 reports to provide a solid basis for
further discussions
 To identify what can and should be done in the different
upcoming River Basin Management planning cycles
JOVANKA IGNJATOVIĆ, REC HO
“CC AND THE EU WATER POLICY”
OBJECTIVES
2. Identify adaptation measures and best practices at different
levels.
 Contribute to European Adaptation Strategies and ensure a
cross-sectoral perspective;
 Identify opportunities for adaptation and counter-productive
actions in other EU policies;
 Identify strategies and possible measures at
national/regional level;
 Identify EU funding possibilities for adaptation measures
JOVANKA IGNJATOVIĆ, REC HO
“CC AND THE EU WATER POLICY”
OBJECTIVES
3. Strengthen the Science/Policy link on Climate Change and
Water and ensure a science / policy interface by identifying
research needs, communicating them to the research community
and making best use of available research results.
JOVANKA IGNJATOVIĆ, REC HO
THANK YOU FOR ATTENTION!