Published on: 10/05/2011
In the years ahead of us at least US $100 billion will be spend worldwide for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Transparency International (TI) warns us that efforts to combat climate change risk to be undermined by corruption and mismanagement. This year, TI’s annual Global Corruption Report, sheds its light on corruption risks in climate governance. The report gives a comprehensive overview of those areas where improved governance will be essential to render climate policies successful. One of the key areas at risk is adaptation to climate change in the most vulnerable countries. Twenty countries are expected to be most affected by climate change, all of those countries rank low on TI’s Corruption Perception Index. As a lack of transparency and accountability is an endemic problem in those countries, new investments for adaptation programmes will pose enormous governance challenges. Special attention is drawn to the consequences for the water sector in a chapter contributed by the Water Integrity Network (WIN). Climate change adaptation programmes often concern flood control or measures to deal with water scarcity. As such, most of the adaptation money immediately flows into the water sector. For example inBangladesh, one of the most vulnerable countries, nine out of 15 National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPA) are directly related to water. The report states that “an important element of any adaptation effort should be the promotion of water integrity at all levels”.
