The Canadian Water Summit was created in 2009 to facilitate partnerships between leaders from business, government, NGOs and academia to help realize Canada’s potential to be a world leader in water expertise and technology innovation.

The interconnectedness of energy, water and food has been the prime focus of international discussions this year. In March, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) organized the 10th annual World Water Day, with the theme of Food and Water Nexus. Energy is a third and important component because to produce food, we need both water and energy. A connection can be easily drawn: to produce energy we need water, and to clean and deliver water for livelihood and food production, we need energy. Hence, we have the Water-Food-Energy Nexus.

Video Interview

Collecting inputs for the Bonn2011 Nexus Conference preparatory process

The question of how to effectively use our water resources has been debated for decades, yet what we need more than ever is direct action at the field level.

A message from Felix Dodds, Executive Director of the Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future and International Steering Committee (ISC) Member

Last year, Shell released Signals and Signposts, which analyzed long-term energy scenarios and concluded that we are in an era of volatile transitions at the economic, political and social levels. The stresses building in our global systems, such as water, food and energy production, will make industrial and social transformations inevitable. We must acknowledge the links between these stresses and “connect the dots,” before it is too late.

We all use fresh water every day; however, the fact remains that a large amount of the water used daily in the United States — and around the world — is by companies. That’s because water is not only vital to survival, it’s vital to our global economy. Energy generation, agricultural irrigation, industrial processes and mining, oil and gas activities all use water as a major input; in the U.S., these activities account for over 80 percent of our freshwater use. For this reason, water is a hot topic at this week’s Fortune Brainstorm GREEN conference underway in Laguna Nigel, California. At this gathering of some of the best and brightest thinkers in sustainability, CEOs and other leaders from corporations and NGOs are tackling tough environmental topics, including the energy-water-food nexus and hydraulic fracturing for natural gas production.

The interconnectedness of energy, water and food has been the prime focus of international discussions this year. In March, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) organized the 10th annual World Water Day, with the theme of Food and Water Nexus. Energy is a third and important component because to produce food, we need both water and energy. A connection can be easily drawn: to produce energy we need water, and to clean and deliver water for livelihood and food production, we need energy. Hence, we have the Water-Food-Energy Nexus.

The ‘nexus’ has become a popular buzz word to describe the complex linkages among water, energy and food security – sectors that have traditionally remained fairly separate. Talk of the water-energy-food nexus was a hot topic at last month’s Planet Under Pressure conference; it is also the focus of a significant German government-organised input to the UN Rio+20 Summit. What has brought nexus thinking to the fore, and what does this nexus look like? How does it relate to climate compatible development?

Today at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, I had the good fortune of chairing a most interesting workshop on addressing resource scarcity. It was organised by Shell. Over the coming two decades, the growth of population and prosperity will significantly increase the global demand for energy, water and food, perhaps beyond planetary boundaries. This is known as the “stress nexus” and how are we to address it? - by Francis Vorhies