Download the post-event update Download Concept note

Organizers: ICIMOD, Utrecht University, Wageningen University and Research, Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, Climate Adaptation Services

About the dialogue

With the SustainIndus project initiated in 2019 starting to produce some promising results, it is critical to ensure that the project methodologies and results are relevant and useful for the sustainable development of the Indus basin. Due to the pandemic, the consortium partners have been reaching out individually to relevant stakeholders from the basin countries and beyond to seek inputs and share progress towards the project outcomes. This first science–policy dialogue aims to further these interactions and receive inputs from a wider stakeholder base. The objectives of the dialogue are to:

• Introduce the project design, methods, and expected outputs to the region
• Share progress and key findings of ongoing research work with the stakeholders
• Identify policy gaps and needs in the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus in the Indus basin to align the SustainIndus project with basin needs

About the project

The Indus basin is a global climate change hotspot, characterized by a rapidly growing population and strong economic development. This is associated with an exponential increase in water and energy demands. Given the arid climate in the densely populated and heavily irrigated plains and the geopolitical tensions between the riparian states, the road towards achieving the SDGs for WEF is extremely challenging. The SustainIndus project aims to develop sustainable pathways that support decision makers and practitioners to develop science-based policy and climate-smart solutions to provide food (SDG 2), water (SDG 6) and energy (SDG 7) to all people in the Indus basin, now and in the future. To this end, the project will:

• Establish how the WEF supply and demand may evolve in the future and translate global SDGs into quantifiable Indus Development Goals (IDGs)
• Develop, test, and assess climate-smart technologies to optimize water use, hydropower generation, and food production to quantify the potential of these technologies for basin-wide scaling up
• Quantify the synergies and trade-offs among WEF-related IDGs
• Develop sustainable pathways consisting of optimal mixes of adaptation measures aimed at reaching the IDGs under changing climate and socioeconomic development scenarios
• Put the research into use by promoting climate-smart technologies among practitioners and developing pathways for their implementation by key decision makers

SustainIndus is a four-year international collaborative research project implemented by a consortium of Utrecht University, Wageningen University and Research, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), and Climate Adaptation Services (CAS) Foundation. The consortium is developing a novel integrated modelling toolkit to help meet the project’s goals.

Agenda