by Hamburg Wasser, Germany

by RWE Power, Germany

by University of Hohenheim, Germany

by Ministry of Water and Irrigation (Jordan)

This presentation outlines the Nexus Perspective as well as the activities of the German Development Cooperation.

“Water scarcity is affecting other sectors which heavily rely on the availability of water supplies. Water is an important determinant of food security and irrigation will be the first sector to suffer from increasing scarcity. In this lecture, Dr. Anik Bhaduri from the University of Bonn talks about the interlinks between water and food security with a special focus on the concept of virtual water and its measurement.”

The concept of water footprint has been around for some time now and led to valuable debates about the interlinks between consumption patterns, resource scarcity and also trade. In this third webinar of the Water-Energy-Food Security Nexus Lecture Series, Dr. Gerbens-Leenes explains the current knowledge from the water footprint concept with a focus on the water footprint in the production of biomass for energy.

The Strategy Paper of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

With climate variability increasing in upcoming years, rainwater harvesting is seen as a feasible adaptation strategy for many regions of the world. In this second webinar of the Water-Energy-Food Security Nexus Lecture Series in Cologne/Germany, Prof. Dr. Clement Dorm Adzobu talks about the potentials of rainwater harvesting and the applicability of this strategy to African Countries like Ghana.

The sustainable and integrated management of the resources land, water and energy is indispensable for any future development strategy. The way to link the management of these resources to green growth is through the focus on eco-innovations. In this first webinar of the Water-Energy-Food Security Nexus Lecture Series, Prof. Dr. Harald Sander talks about the concept of eco-innovations. Before that, Prof. Dr. Lars Ribbe gives a short introduction to the issues in the Water, Energy, Food Nexus.”

Three focal areas need to be addressed for a transition to a Green Urban Economy, which promotes environmental well-being and improved quality of living for all income groups (i.e. Green Jobs and Poverty Eradication; Financing and Green Investments; Effective Governance and Institutions). The messages and their conditions offer potential ways to address environmental and social concerns in an economically viable way at the local level.

Yesterday, the European Commission and the Government of the United Kingdom organised a side-event at the Rio+20 Conference to present the European Report on Development (ERD) 2011/2012 and discuss its findings in the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals. Following the launch of the report in Brussels in May, a number of other events have been organised throughout Europe to present and debate its findings on national level, involving civil society, governments and media. The series of events led to the Rio+20 Conference.

Interview with Stephan Opitz, Director General of KfW, on the Rio+20 conference and the work of KfW. On the occasion of the UN-conference Rio+20 he explains how Germany’s promotional bank implements this task. KfW promotes sustainable projects and programmes in developing and transition countries in areas such as water supply, food security and energy and is in this way supporting a “green economy” in its partner countries.

Water will be a central component of the Rio discussions due to its role in the green economy. Furthermore, water management structures will be part of the discussions at the Summit. A strong unified front from the water community is required to assure that the agreements made at Rio produce positive and lasting results regarding water resources. This guide seeks to introduce the Rio+20 process and facilitate water stakeholders’ participation in the process.

“The report is indeed timely and very pertinent to our efforts in finding answers to some of the great questions of our time: how do we handle resource scarcities? How do we tackle climate change and mitigate its consequences? How does the growth of world population affect the globe? And – of course – what does all this imply for foreign policy?”

This project undertakes the preparation of an the European Report on Development (ERD) 2012 researching this issue with the objective of presenting a report on effective natural resources management for sustainable and inclusive growth in the run up to the next RIO+20 Earth Summit in 2012.

by Margaret Catley-Carlson, held at the South African Water, Energy and Food Forum: “Managing the Mega-Nexus”, 18-19 April 2012

“The time for solution is upon us.” The member countries of the Blue Group call upon all stakeholders of the 6th World Water Forum 2012, and the wider international community, to integrate human rights standards and principles when finding solutions to support the aim of universal access to water and sanitation.

The Institute for Technology and Resources Management in the Tropics and Subtropics (ITT) provides teaching, research and consultancy services. The ITT is an interdisciplinary and international interface. The aim of the institute is to enable people of various technical and cultural backgrounds in the capacity for wide ranging cooperation on an interdisciplinary and international level as well as at the university and post-graduate level.

“How we shape all this change is one of the key questions for the future. How can we shape the necessary worldwide switch to a sustainable economy so as to alleviate poverty and preserve our environmental resources?”

by Hamburg Wasser, Germany

by RWE Power, Germany

by University of Hohenheim, Germany

by Ministry of Water and Irrigation (Jordan)

Content: Three Strategy Panels: Doing More With Less - Global Sustainability Panel to Support Nexus Approach - Plenary Highlights Immediate Outcome Initiatives - Conference Voices - Practitioners Urged to Think Interlinked and Look at Bio-Economy - Practitioners Inspire Concrete Actions - Integrating WASH Into the Nexus - Urbanization Provides an Opportunity to Optimize Linkages

Content: Growing Food in Cities, Preventing Food Waste - Human Rights-Based Approach Requires Structured Actions - Solutions From the Sky, the Sea and the Sewer - Conference Voices - Road to Rio Connects Water to Green Economy - Young Scientists Bring Creativity to Nexus Solutions - EU to Reinforce Nexus Linkages With “Agenda for Change” - Q & A With Shenggen Fan of IFPRI

Content: The Bonn Perspectives and the Nexus Approach - Pre-Conference Symposium Brings Nexus Thinking to Bonn Public - Conference “Ambassadors” to Promote Outcomes - Attendee Snapshots - Conference Co-Chairs: Government, Business, NGOs All Have Role to Play in Addressing Nexus Problems - Ensuring Nature Is Considered in Nexus Talks: Q&A With Lasse Gustavsson, WWF

The EU as a whole is the world’s largest donor and a key trading partner for developing countries. With its broad and ambitious development policies and comprehensive partnerships, the EU it is already making a significant contribution towards the MDGs. But we could have even greater impact.

Is there a contradiction between providing secure access to water and energy and supplying sufficient food to the world‘s growing population? The answer right now is: in many cases, yes! In many situations throughout the world it is becoming clear that increases in the supply of water or food or energy only come at the expense of one or both of the other resources.

Our world faces enormous challenges. Water, energy and food will become ever scarcer in future, especially in poor countries. Although solutions can be found for many of the impending problems, the measures taken to tackle one problem impact on other sectors – often with negative consequences. Conflicts of objectives arise. Thus, more food or energy has, so far, come at a high cost: rising water consumption. And this is only one example of the contradictory relationships at work.

“The nexus is an important process which has been started at the Bonn conference and needs to be continued by committed people at all levels in order to effect change”. — by Nicole Kranz

On 13 April 2012 Germany officially submitted its application for Bonn to accommodate the headquarters of the Green Climate Fund (GCF). Uschi Eid, Co-Chairs of the Bonn2011 Nexus Conference, has recently been nominated as ambassadors to promote this application.

German-Rwandan Side event on the Nexus on 22nd March before the 3rd Intersessional Meeting of the UNCSD

Voices & Conclusions from the Bonn2011 Nexus Conference

German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle introduces the results of the Bonn2011 Nexus Conference

A satellite initiative of the Bonn2011 Nexus Conference

Growing demand for water, energy and food demands resource-efficient economics

In Bonn, the United Nations are working towards sustainable development worldwide with more than 950 employees in 18 secretariats.

The main results and findings of the first meeting of the Berlin Water Dialogues

Civil society contributes to the debate around water, energy and food security

Third meeting of the International Steering Committee (ISC) on 7-8 September 2011

Nexus Conference opens perspectives: The City of Bonn and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) signed a memorandum on 21 July 2011, stating their intent to strengthen Bonn as a United Nations location for international cooperation, development and sustainability.

International experts comment on the main topics of the Bonn2011 Nexus Conference

An interview with Joachim von Braun, member of the International Steering Committee

Consultation process shaped by representatives from the spheres of politics, business and civil society

United Nations gives the city a new face

The Vienna Energy Forum 2013 will focus on the energy dimension captured in the Rio+20 outcome document “The Future We Want” and will facilitate on how energy should be integrated into the post- 2015 global development framework.” During the Forum a side-event about the recent international undertakings and progress on the water-energy-food nexus is taking place.

Seventh Biennial Conference of the European Society for Environmental History (ESEH), Munich, Germany

The 1st International Terra Preta Conference aims at bringing experts and interested people from the different sectors – water/sanitation, agriculture, soil, energy, health – together to present their research results and to share their experiences in the field of Terra Preta Sanitation.

On 26 November 2012, the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) conducts a one day meeting for young professionals in Koblenz, Germany, to discuss the water and energy nexus.

The Lecture Series addresses these key issues by bringing scientists and experts from many disciplines together. It wants to contribute to the current global dialogue regarding the future of our planet. Organised by German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE-GDI),
Institute of Geography/University of Cologne, Institute for Technology and Resources Management in the Tropics and Subtropics (ITT) of the Cologne University of Applied Sciences.

The workshop is part of the German-South African Year of Science 2012/13, which was initiated by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the South African Department of Science and Technology (DST).

WaterLex, with the sponsorship of the permanent missions of Costa Rica, Ecuador, Germany and Spain, invites to a side event on “The Future of Water in the United Nations System”, Wednesday 19th September, 1-4pm, Room XXIV, Palais des Nations.

New Challenges for Science and Governance. Indicators, Thresholds and Uncertainties of the Global Water System, Bonn

Water is a prerequisite for food production which requires also nutrients and energy. Vice versa alternative energy production by biogas plants is based on biomass derived from agriculture. Thus agricultural food production seems to be the most important integrative part concerning the water-food-energy nexus.

by the German Federal Foreign Office (AA), the Transatlantic Academy and the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU)

“BONN PERSPECTIVES” workshop in Bonn

Programme of the German Pavilion

A satellite initiative of the Bonn2011 Nexus Conference

Solutions for the Green Economy

British firms have acquired more land in Africa for controversial biofuel plantations. Biofuels have been linked to rising food prices and hunger, as well as increased greenhouse gas emission.

Rising resource and food costs add to the increasingly constraining effect the water-energy-food nexus exerts on our energy and other choices. Among other things, the water demands of conventional energy - including nuclear - threaten to overwhelm our capacity to cope with global population increases and urbanization.

Ludgate Investments Ltd., a London-based private equity investor, is seeking to raise as much as $300 million to finance waste-recycling and water-treatment businesses through a second resource-efficiency fund. “The value proposition is resource scarcity and the fact that wastes have now become commodities, providing strong returns,” Chief Executive Officer Gijs Voskamp said in an interview in London. “There is no other way than becoming more efficient with resources.”

Important resources such as water, land, energy and minerals are becoming ever scarcer. This is due to population growth and rapid economic development, but also to the lack of suitable forums for conflict settlement and resource management. A report released by the Transatlantic Academy investigates this problem. It was brought to policymakers’ attention at an event co‑hosted by the Federal Foreign Office, the Transatlantic Academy and the German Advisory Council on Global Change in Berlin on 6 June.

The world population keeps growing, and with it the demand for food. Students of Urban Ecology at the Technical University Berlin have developed ideas for innovative agriculture.

Scientists from 15 countries are calling for a better political response to the provision of water and energy to meet the challenge of feeding a world of 9 billion people within 30 years.

National science academies of 15 countries issued joint statements today calling on world leaders about to meet at the upcoming G8 Summit and other international gatherings this year to give greater consideration to the vital role science and technology could play in addressing some of the planet’s most pressing challenges.

With population rising, how can a water crisis be averted? After two unusually dry winters - which have left reservoirs, aquifers and rivers below normal levels - seven water companies across southern and eastern England are about to impose water restrictions. But experts say population growth and climate change could spell a much grimmer future.

We have left behind an era in which energy, food, water, and other resources have been relatively cheap and plentiful. Rising demand is carrying us into an age of higher and more volatile prices for energy, food and raw materials. Political tensions in the regions traditionally supplying the world’s oil have added to the uncertainties. Climate change is amplifying these stresses, and will do so increasingly. These risks post a serious threat to growth, through price shocks and inflation. Their political consequences could be more serious still, with some tempted to see a zero sum competition for resources between consumers and between nations.

Der Ausschuss für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung hat heute einen Antrag der Koalitionsfraktionenzur weltweiten Bekämpfung der Wasserknappheit gegen das Votum der Opposition angenommen. Nach dem Willen von Union und FDP soll die Bundesregierung beim Rio+20-Prozess dafür eintreten, wirksame Maßnahmen gegen Wasserknappheit zu vereinbaren – „unter Berücksichtigung des Nexus von Ernährungssicherheit, Wasser und Energie“.

Mit ihrem Antrag fordern die Abgeordneten die Bundesregierung unter anderem dazu auf, beim Rio+20-Prozess dafür einzutreten, wirksame Maßnahmen gegen Wasserknappheit zu vereinbaren – „unter Berücksichtigung des Nexus von Ernährungssicherheit, Wasser und Energie“.

“Never had I imagined before that representatives of countries, international organizations, and private and public sectors would agree on unifyng and synchronizing their efforts under the threat of a common enemy: Water Scarcity.”

Die Ressource Wasser ist knapp. Das ist nicht nur ein Problem der Wüstenzonen. Wasser muss gerechter verteilt werden, denn Industriestaaten verschwenden es schonungslos. Deutschland beteiligt sich an der Weltwasserdiskussion seit dem vergangenen Jahr mit der sogenannten Nexus-Diskussion.

Kühe als Klimafaktor, stiller Hunger als Bedrohung: Ein Gespräch mit dem Ernährungsexperten Joachim von Braun