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Photo Credit: Ivan Aleshin/ShutterstockPacific island states where fresh water is the most precious of shared resources, a fundamental that exceeds all self-interest. This is powerful. It is a spirit we all need now, whether we are talking about the fragile freshwater lens of a Pacific island, a great continental river like the Amazon, or our planet as a whole system.Ensuring the collective and fair management of water resources through the era of adaptation to climate change is every state’s political responsibility. At the same time, it is a process to which we can all contribute: as part of the water community, the climate community, or simply the global community of water users. Every different perspective reveals a little bit more of the path to the right decisions.This is an important recognition, but how do we move from different perspectives to shared political decisions? Through partnerships. The World Water Council, as a platform of over 300 organizations from more than 50 countries, has been building partnerships for more than 20 years, and we are now greatly accelerating our initiatives to bring the water and climate communities into closer cooperation. At each World Water Forum, held every three years since 1997, climate change has been a key topic. The Council, which has been granted UNFCCC observer status, has been active in some of the most important climate-related events, particularly the Conference of the Parties. And we work continually with governments and other partners to elevate the role of water in adaptation to climate change on the political agenda.We believe that COP23 is a pivotal moment in this agenda and, along with our partners, we have been preparing for it throughout the year. In October, we hosted the 2nd International Conference on Water and Climate: On the Road to COP23, in Marseille, France, with the support of the government of Morocco and its COP22 Presidency and with the endorsement of the COP23. Carrying on collaborations from the first such conference in 2016, this has mobilized a range of political, institutional, technical and scientific stakeholders to make the nexus of water and climate a uniting point in all COP23 discussions. This gathering is concretely feeding into the COP23 multi-stakeholder process and water theme, and I hope that the energy and expertise of the water community is on full display in Bonn.“ENSURING THE COLLECTIVE AND FAIR MANAGEMENT OF WATER RESOURCES THROUGH THE ERA OF ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE IS EVERY STATE’S POLITICAL RESPONSIBILITY ”“THIS YEAR’S CLIMATE CONFERENCE WILL ALSO FEATURE A RETURN OF THE GLOBAL CLIMATE ACTION DAY FOR WATER, A LANDMARK ACHIEVEMENT AT COP22 IN MARRAKECH, CO-FACILITATED BY THE WORLD WATER COUNCIL ”WATER SECURITY 055