New insights into the Food-Energy-Water nexus

Published on January 26, 2014 13:27 by Markus Pahlow, University of Canterbury - Senior Lecturer

New insights into the Food-Energy-Water nexus
In this WWF blog the authors point out that there are certain things that policy makers should consistently seek to ensure:

That decisions around food, water and energy policy are not made in isolation
That institutions are designed for resilience, flexibility and to facilitate co-operation
That economic and regulatory instruments help to strengthen incentives for building resilience into food, water and energy systems
That trade, regional integration and foreign policy support the management of nexus trade-offs and contribute to resilience at the local, national and global levels.

The authors research concludes that strategies to meet a country's development and sustainability goals are most resilient when they build on a clear analysis of the particular nexus resource challenges faced in that country's context. Moreover, decisions made in early stages of development have implications for ensuring resilience later on. This is especially true for the design of infrastructure and institutions which govern the use of food, water and energy resources.

More information:
http://blogs.wwf.org.uk/blog/business-government/new-insights-into-the-food-energy-water-nexus/

Water Footprint Assessment (Hoekstra et al., 2011 --> available at http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=files/WaterFootprintAssessmentManual) can support such efforts.