The Strategy for the Danube Region, which is slated to come into effect in 2011, has just received fresh impetus from the December 9 press release in which the European Commission presented its Action Plan for the cross-border region and its 115 million inhabitants. The Commission underlined the urgent need for cross-border cooperation to make progress on such diverse challenges as sustainable transport, energy connections, environmental protection and water conservation.

During the Conference of the United Nations (UN) on Climate Change in Cancun (Mexico), several states took action to ensure that greater attention was given to the water issue in the discussions. On 2 December, the Foreign Ministers of the Green Group drew the attention of the participants to the link between climate change and water, and to the importance of better management of water resources in order to reduce the impact of climate change. On 6 December, six other governments called upon the representatives of the 190 States present to account for their actions on the same subject.

According to a study by NASA, the temperature of the large lakes in the world, including those of the Northern Hemisphere, is increasing on average by 1.23 degree Celsius per decade. A team from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the U.S. space agency, has used satellites to carry out the temperature readings of 167 large lakes worldwide, representing over 500 square kilometres.