Mitigating and Adapting to “Arid” Climate Extremes: Impacts of Locally Prioritized Ecosystem-Based Adaptations at the Water-Energy Nexus

Abstract

Major opportunities for climate change mitigation and adaptation exist inmarginalized and drought-prone environments. However, the opportunity and public responsibility to critically analyze potential benefits and trade-offs at the water-energy nexus still tends to get overlooked in the rush to design and implement adaptation projects. This causes unnecessary expenditures, hinders climate change and drought mitigation, and reduces the scope for tracking progress toward the intended end of drought emergencies – including learning about what works and what doesn’t. In this chapter, we explore processes, methods, and tools which may help countries and communities in the region to identify the benefits and trade-offs of Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) at the water-energy nexus. We achieve a preliminary quantification of impacts on both water resource availability for vulnerable people in a drought-prone region and also present future emissions contributing to future climate change. Next steps involving possible use of water and energy accounting through a crossscale participatory approach are outlined. This should help to rethink poorly conceived strategies, better assess successful local community and ecosystem-based adaptation andmitigation, feed into planning for further such interventions, and increase value for money in responses to climate change and drought threats across the region.