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Climate mitigation and adaptation pathways

Climate-related water risks are interconnected, requiring comprehensive assessments to guide adaptation planning and prevent maladaptation. However, solutions and financing for resilience are often separated into adaptation and mitigation, with limited data on their effectiveness and trade-offs. Scaling these solutions is typically isolated and technocratic, overlooking climate risks and the perspectives of all stakeholders leading to limited adoption. This poses significant risks when scaling these innovations across space and time leading to ineffective investment with potential unintended consequences. Additionally, the impact of climate challenges on financing and scaling mechanisms is not well understood, reducing their flexibility and effectiveness.

The International Water Management Institute works to help governments and other partners plan and operationalize climate change adaptation and/or mitigation strategies through developing scientific evidence, models and frameworks. Its programs and research:

Enhance climate related multi-hazard risk and impact assessments across scales for better decision making across water-food-energy and the environment.
Empower locally led adoption and de-risks scaling processes and investments through the production and incorporation of climate information services.
De-carbonize water systems to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Combine water innovations with innovative financing and insurance mechanisms to address multi-level and –actor risks along scaling processes.
Quantify water consumption of adaptation and mitigation measures and forecast future water demands across the agricultural, energy and environment.
Enhance the effectiveness, evaluates the trade-offs and risk for maladaptation of water innovations for adaptation and mitigation across space and time.
Incorporate climate information and risk profiling to strengthen scaling processes and investment.
Promote intersectionality in water and climate risk management to ensure that water solutions for adaptation and mitigation are both inclusive and responsive to diverse needs and experiences.