Editorial: Reflecting on progress in water management adaptation to climate change

Following the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25) in November 2019 in Madrid (Spain), which was presided over by Chile, this journal Water Management featured an article by Harou et al. (2020) reflecting on the role of water at the conference. The authors laid out the theme of water at COP25 within the context of climate change, and its role in both mitigation and adaptation (Harou et al., 2020). It is two and half years since COP25 and two years since this commentary has been published; in the intervening time the world has experienced a global pandemic, a delayed COP26 (held in Glasgow, UK) and US$337 billion of damages (EM-DAT, 2022) from water-related natural hazard events. However, also during this period, significant UK and international reports on climate change science and adaptation progress have been published. In this Editorial, we reflect on the progress made in the intervening years in relation to water-based adaptation and discuss whether the original conclusions are still valid.