The International Joint Commission (IJC) is a binational organization that prevents and resolves disputes over the boundary waters of the United States and Canada. Recognizing that climate change strongly impacts water quantity and quality along the transboundary, one of the IJC’s priorities is to adapt its approach to the management of water levels and flows and to the advice it provides to governments to support their efforts to maintain and restore water quality in transboundary watershed.
The IJC recognizes that climate resiliency is a busy space with many productive initiatives and resources being developed by a myriad of organizations. The IJC’s activities aim to inform progress while avoiding duplication with other activities, be relevant binationally, and make use of the IJC’s unique convening capacity.
In an effort to advance this strategic priority, the IJC recently led two workshops that aimed to:
document climate resiliency-related activities in the boundary waters that address binational water resources management, including IJC activities, recent or ongoing activities of governments, non-governmental organizations, Indigenous organizations, and the IJC and its Boards;
better understand the needs of the Commission’s Boards, Study Boards and Task Teams related to decisions on water quantity, levels, and flows, and water quality, considering a changing climate; and
inform IJC’s advice to the governments of Canada and the United States under the IJC’s responsibilities included in the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA), which may also be relevant in transboundary watersheds outside of the Great Lakes. .
This presentation will summarize the information collected through workshops and surveys that will serve to guide the Commission in the development of an IJC Climate Resiliency Strategy.
