by University of Hohenheim, Germany

by Dr Larry C.Y. Wong, Program Director, TIES, held at the National Convention on Food Security in Malaysia, 15-16 Oct 2012, Putrajaya, Malaysia

The corporate world is waking to the realisation that improved water management is fundamental for future prosperity and human well-being. This special issue explores aspects of its response: from the application of an array of analytical tools such as water footprint accounting, risk filters and standards; water use efficiencies; derivatives and insurance mechanisms; to collaborative infrastructure and watershed projects; stakeholder engagement and attempts to influence water governance at all scales. Drawing on the papers in this issue the motivations for this new agenda are traced and its potential in helping to unlock some of our most intractable water challenges, or to open a Pandora’s box of controversies are considered. Key concerns include the potential for diverging corporate and public interests; policy and regulatory capture; privileging of economic over social perspectives; process inequities; displacement of existing water management priorities, and the risks of misguided interventions which undermine institutional and hydrological sustainability - with the financial support of Water Witness International, WWF, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and German Technical Cooperation (GIZ)

In the final installment of the Global Resource Nexus Series, Junior Fellow Corey Johnson examines the everyday politics behind resource allocation and consumption. He examines the role resources play in causing migration, and the importance of cities in understanding and addressing the resource nexus.

Green Cities, Integrated Resource Planning Approach and Trade-offs to Meet a Green, Sustainable Economy. By Jay Witherspoon, Mark Anderson, Avinash Pathwardhan, and Jared Thorpe, CH2M HILL

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.

by Peter Stigson, Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL), held on 3 July 2012 at the Chinese Academy of Science, Institute for Policy and Management (CAS/IPM)

Presentation by Kala Vairavamoorthy, Patel School of Global Sustainability, University of South Florida

Nuclear technologies are used daily to find and protect sustainable sources of fresh water, produce energy and food, while providing researchers the tools to study the ocean’s past and predict its future. The IAEA helps its 154 member countries safely employ these technologies to ensure peace, health and prosperity throughout the world.

There is a growing awareness of the Energy-Water-Food Nexus, but the tendency is to consider each issue in isolation. A holistic approach to addressing the Nexus and the related issue of climate change is needed, as are new ways of working together.

Speech of HRH Prince of Orange during in interactive meeting in preparation of Rio on 30 May 2012 in Rotterdam

This statement reflects a collective opinion of the UN-Water Members and comprises recommendations to the participants of the UNCSD 2012 as well as a list of potential actions in support of green economic approaches.

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

A contribution from the UN-Water Conference “Water in the Green Economy in Practice: Towards Rio+20”

The growth of the earth’s urban population and areas continues as a major demographic trend; it is projected that 70 % of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2050. Urban growth today is most rapid in developing countries, where cities gain an average of 5 million residents each month.

by University of Hohenheim, Germany

Water security in the 21st century requires an integrated approach to water resources management

This paper is the scientific background paper of the Bonn2011 Nexus Conference. It explains the Nexus and presents initial evidence for how a nexus approach can enhance water, energy and food security in a green economy by increasing efficiency, reducing trade-offs, and building synergies across sectors.

A voice from the ground, Edward Byers, PhD student from Newcastle/UK, gives his view of the NEXUS event at the German Pavilion in Rio.

“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

Collaboration remains critical to meeting rocketing demand for life essentials by 2030, says Joppe Cramwinckel (WBCSD)

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

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).

Singapore International Water Week (SIWW) 2012 provides the platform to address today’s challenges and explore opportunities in the integration of water solutions and urban planning in cities around the world. Opportunities abound for global water leaders and practitioners from the public and private sectors to debate in water dialogues, network with key industry players, showcase leading-edge technologies and best practices and identify viable solutions to address this common challenge.

The “nexus” of food, water and energy represents one of the biggest challenges in urban areas. If supplies of these three key resources are not maintained over time to serve human societies as well as the natural ecosystems from which they derive, the basis for all life will be undermined, and cities will not be functional any more.

The rapidly growing cities in Asia will face enormous challenges in ensuring water, energy and food security for their population if not now than in near future. To discuss possibilities to address this challenge more than 40 participants from six Asian took part in the workshop on “Integrated Resource Management in Asian Cities”.

The 12th edition of Green Week, the biggest annual conference on European environment policy.

Innovation and Collaboration for the Future We Want

Rio De Janeiro

The global demands for food, energy, and shelter are putting unprecedented pressure on the resources of the planet. The study, “Tapped Out: How Can Cities Secure Their Water Future?” focuses on growing cities and the need of reliable sources of water.

The GSV Forum 2012 in New Delhi/India on 5 November 2012 brought together opinion leaders from South Asia and beyond to discuss the role business in society, nutrition, water and rural development. This video contains the session on “Water, energy, food security”.

Do we really understand - or think sufficiently about - the “Energy-Water-Food Nexus”? That was the concern shared during a searching Singapore Energy Summit plenary session on Monday.

The world’s rapid transition to urbanization contributes greatly to the pressure on water, food security, and energy, as the World Water Week Workshop on Securing Water and Food in an Urbanising World explored. We cannot simply look at urbanization as an urban problem. As Pay Drechsel from the International Water Management Institute stressed in the seminar, urbanization has strong links to rural and peri-urban areas, as urban centers become sinks for both rural-borne water and nutrients. The informal sector around many rapidly developing cities, such as Chennai, has entered into a highly lucrative business pumping tanks and aquifers dry and selling the water to cities. The water is transported by trucks, adding energy costs to cities’ water supply. Through this system, informal water markets supply cities with every drop of water they can get, quickly drying up peri-urban areas. While it requires significant infrastructure costs to redirect water sources from increasing distances towards cities, peri-urban areas are suffering as cities squeeze them dry of water resources.

A survey of leaders at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos revealed that, for the first time, water-related risks are among the top 5 concerns when considering the likelihood and impact of all major global risks. Only the impact of a major, systemic financial failure concerns them more. Water is suddenly a greater concern than volatility of energy supplies, food shortages or even terrorism. This is a major shift. In the past five years, water hasn’t even been on their radar screen as a top risk. What’s happening?

Management of water resources needs “substantial improvement and actual reform in many countries,” and an integrated management is significant for “the most valuable natural resources,” Olcay Unver from the UNESCO’s water assessment program told Xinhua. “There has been some improvement over the the past decade or so, but we would very much like to see this expedited mostly by national government,” the director of UENSCO Program Office for Global Water Assessment said in a recent interview.

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.

Cities are where we build our most ambitious and symbolic structures, where we come together to share experiences and exchange capital, goods and ideas, and where we go in search of a better life. At the city level, more so than at the regional or global level, citizens are more likely to share and shape one another’s values and aspirations, and to be able to act together in response to both challenges and opportunities.