Water is essential to climate adaptation and mitigation, yet remains fragmented across climate negotiations, finance and national planning. This position paper from the Water for Climate Pavilion sets out seven recommendations for COP31 to make water action more coherent, measurable and adequately funded. It identifies practical opportunities to strengthen water’s role in climate policy and implementation, while connecting climate, biodiversity and land agendas ahead of the UN 2026 Water Conference.
Designed for negotiators, Presidency teams and climate practitioners, this paper translates the Water for Climate Pavilion partners’ shared position into proposals for specific COP31 negotiating tracks. It explains where decisions on adaptation indicators, climate finance, national climate plans, loss and damage, and carbon markets can support water security. The recommendations address practical barriers to implementation: fragmented reporting on water resilience, limited visibility of water investments within adaptation finance, and gaps in the evidence countries need to access funding. The paper also examines how water-related emissions and the hydrological impacts of mitigation projects can be better accounted for. Each recommendation is linked to a relevant negotiating process, with proposed language consolidated in a reference table. The paper also outlines opportunities for joint indicators, integrated national planning and coordinated finance across the climate, biodiversity and land conventions, using blue carbon ecosystems as an illustrative case.
Position paper of the Water for Climate Pavilion, COP31
English
