Throwback to the UN 2023 Water Conference: Climate Justice matters!

On the 22nd of March – World Water Day – decision makers and water professionals from all over the world gathered at the first UN Water Conference in almost five decades. Ramboll was represented by a strong team with Simon Kates, Sophia Ertel, Elizabeth McSweeney, and Kristoffer Ulbak from the NYC Office and Christian Nyerup Nielsen, director for Ramboll’s global climate adaptation division, and Trine Stausgaard Munk, global urbanism manager at Henning Larsen. Here are their key take-aways and observations after three days of presentations, workshops and side-events in- and outside the UN premises in the city that never sleeps: 

“Almost immediately, it was clear that climate justice was the talk of the town,” Christian says. “Regardless of whether you look at the consequences of climate change from a global or local perspective, these consequences will never impact societies in a fair way. So, the discussion in New York City centered on how the adaptation and flood-protection can be organized as fair and just as possible.” 

“Even in sessions and events where climate justice was not the headline or the key focus, the topic would still be raised and trigger dynamic, and sometimes tense, discussions,” Trine adds. 

Broader business cases needed 
According to Christian and Trine there is an open window of opportunity for developing climate adaptation solutions that help societies and communities become much more just, and cohesive.  

“We need to reconsider, how we define business cases for resilience projects,” Trine explains. “Today, most of these business cases focus narrowly on the direct infrastructure damage reduction and the financial value of the assets protected. We need to also consider the fundamental aspects of protecting livelihoods and nature in addition to infrastructure. We also need to increasingly include co-benefits such as recreation, social coherence, public health, and job creation in the business cases to address some of the historic injustices often characterizing vulnerable communities. We could design and implement solutions that not only create a more equitable protection but also provide additional societal benefits.” 

“Take New York City as example”, Christian adds. “Although Manhattan indisputably needs protection against the dangerous combination of storm-surge and heavy rain, we must not overlook flood-prone areas in other parts of the city with higher proportions of low-income groups. For example, a resilience project in a low-income area in the Bronx with blue-green infrastructure and recreational features increasing access to quality recreational space and improving air quality for instance would not only improve local flood protection but also support physical health which again would benefit the entire city.” 

“Fortunately, most of the discussions at the conference were about how and not if cities, industries and developers should focus on climate justice,” Trine says. “That gave me a good faith that we, as a global community of water and climate professionals, are moving in the right direction.” 

 
Where were the climate adaptation heroes of tomorrow?  
Another observation that our team made during the conference was that the youth representatives were highly underrepresented at all the conference venues. 

“The average age of the participants was a bit higher than expected. That is, of course, not a problem per se, as experience and professional maturity are also important in solving the world’s water problems. However, as a wise man once sang, ‘all the young dudes carry the news’ – and I couldn’t help wondering if we are good enough in attracting, integrating and engaging young talent in the global water sector. Whether we like it or not, these young talents will be the ones battling the challenges created by us and previous generations” Christian says. 

“There is no doubt that we need new and fresh perspectives to adapt our cities and societies to climate change in just, and creative ways,” Trine supplements. “Ultimately, we are fighting to ensure that future generations will also be able to live a safe and desirable urban life. But can we even envision what that looks like in 2080? 2150? We need to be better at involving children and youth to help us, the seasoned professionals, use our imagination in addressing these complex issues, and to give the next generation a voice in shaping their own future.”   

As a result of these observations Ramboll & Henning Larsen has decided to strengthen their collaboration with youth organizations in general but also in particularly leading up to our engagement at NYC Climate Week 2023.