President János Áder has said the global water crisis has become a “threatening reality” during a high-level UN session on water and disasters in New York on Thursday.
The president said the number of water-related disasters and the damage caused by them had increased exponentially in recent years.
According to MTI, President Áder made several recommendations during the session. He proposed that cities, provinces and federal states should also be allowed to join the Paris climate accord.
He also recommended that the accord should be extended to maritime navigation, and that investment in water-related infrastructure projects should be doubled over the coming five years.
The president also said a system that enables greenhouse gas emissions to halve every ten years for three decades should be established. At least a third of climate protection resources should be spent on water management projects, including water basis protection, modern irrigation, sewage recycling, desalination and flood control, he added.
The president, who takes climate change extremely seriously, also proposed that the UN should appoint an official in charge of water management, which he said would enable the global community to react more quickly and effectively to crises.