From September 17 to 19, 2026, the Lancang-Mekong Countries "Climate Change and Water Resources" Science and Technology Cooperation and Exchange Event was held at the Longzihu Campus of North China University of Water Resources and Hydropower. A total of 150 experts, young scholars, and faculty and student representatives from 15 countries gathered to conduct in-depth discussions on issues such as the water-food-energy nexus system, water resources management, river basin ecological restoration, water governance, and climate resilience, with a focus on deepening science and technology and people-to-people exchanges in the Lancang-Mekong region and jointly addressing common challenges in regional water resources and the ecological environment. UNEP-IEMP was one of the main supporting organizations of the symposium.

Prof. Zhang Linxiu, UNEP-IEMP Director, set the stage in her keynote presentation “Managing Landscapes for Sustaining Livelihoods: An Ecosystem-based Approach to the Water-Food-Energy Nexus in the Lancang-Mekong Region”. She began with the global triple planetary crisis of the interconnected challenges between climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution - which together threaten ecosystems, human health, and sustainable development. She emphasized that humans both place pressure on ecosystems and depend on them, and that an ecosystem-based nexus approach can serve as a solution. After highlighting UNEP-IEMP's relevant nexus approach initiatives in the Mekong region and beyond, she stressed that the ecological dimension should be recognized as a driver in the water-food-energy-ecosystem (WEF-E) nexus, and that people should be at the center of cross-sectoral integration. 

Group Photo of the Participants to the Event