Katoomba XX: Climate, Forests, Water, and People: A Vision of Development for Tropical America

Just months before Lima hosts over 190 countries to advance international climate negotiations at COP 20, Katoomba XX – Peru will identify opportunities for climate policy and finance to align with other public and private investments and commitments to ensure that forests and other ecosystems continue to provide critical support for stable climate and resilient societies.

The need for alignment becomes clear when we consider how climate change, forests, and water are deeply intertwined. Not only will climate change directly impact forests and the other natural systems that maintain critical water-related ecosystem services, climate impacts will be experienced largely through the medium of water – melting glaciers, changing rainfall patterns, increased water stress and drought from higher temperatures, more severe storms – resulting in increased water and food insecurity, and constraints on economic opportunity. Integrating climate policy, forest and biodiversity conservation, post-2015 SDGs, water management, and agriculture and energy development will be critical to success.

Successfully finding alignment will require efforts not only at multiple levels of governance but also among scientists, financiers, business leaders, bilateral and multilateral donors, NGO leaders, and community leaders. Katoomba XX will convene these actors to help to forge alliances and mobilize momentum for a new vision of alignment for Tropical America.