The Hamburg G20 Summit is held as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) approach their second year. The SDGs are many things: they are a clear set of urgent, achievable objectives to move the global community towards equality and sustainability; they are also a comprehensive suite of goals that, like no other before them, holds all countries to task when it comes to human and environmental protection. The SDGs also prove that multilateralism can and must work: they prove that the world can come together. They recognize that we need to collaborate to tackle the most pressing environmental, social and economic issues that affect our families, jobs and future. Within this hopeful expression of international cooperation, the German presidency has named the G20 Summit “Shaping an Interconnected World.” This interconnectedness poses both complex challenges and clear opportunities. Science reminds us daily that our environment is a starting point of this interconnectedness. Pollutants do not stop flowing through the air as soon as they reach the neighbouring country’s border. There is no passport control for mercury streaming down our rivers.
Heat waves and droughts pay no mind to diplomatic relations. We are all feeling the impacts of intensifying extreme weather events, such as flooding and droughts, linked to climate change. Yet these challenges continue to inspire cooperation. There is no better example than how shared freshwater basins have fostered peace and security among neighbours. The SDGs dedicate the whole of Goal 6 to ensuring the sustainable management and availability of fresh water – a goal that reminds us of the necessary comprehensive approach we must take to safeguarding our water. While progress continues in expanding basic services like sewage and wastewater treatment, too many people still lack basic access to clean water. Women, young children and Indigenous communities are most affected. Key groundwater aquifers upon which several global agricultural breadbaskets rely are near depletion. The intensifying effects of climate change compound these long-standing freshwater management challenges. Many of our greatest bodies of water—the Laurentian Great Lakes, Lake Victoria, Lake Titicaca, the wider Amazon basin—span multiple countries,
and thus require cooperative work to ensure their effective management. Over 250 basin-wide international freshwater agreements exist, creating the basis for joint solutions that deliver reciprocal benefits to nations and communities, and help safeguard the millions of jobs – from farming to industry – that rely on predictable freshwater sources. The SDGs are reinvigorating cooperation around fresh water. Through them, all countries are committed to protecting and restoring freshwater ecosystems. The international community is already advancing its agenda of water protection through, for example, the Minamata Convention on Mercury and others. A new generation of transboundary freshwater cooperation agreements is emerging. Within Canada, the bilateral agreements within the McKenzie basin agreement (signed in 2015 between three Canadian provinces) is built upon genuine partnerships with Indigenous communities and ecosystembased management goals. The international community will continue to find innovative ways to safeguard our precious fresh water as a basis of a healthy, sustainable and interconnected world. ■
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