event 25 ene. 2017

Walking the Nexus Talk // Assessing the Water-Energy-Food Nexus in the Context of the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative

By Alessandro Flammini, Manas Puri, Lucie Pluschke and Olivier Dubois. This report proposes a way to carry out a water-energy-food nexus assessment approach in order to: a) understand the interactions between water, energy and food systems in a given context, and b) evaluate the performance of a technical or policy intervention in this given context. The ultimate goal of the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus assessment is to inform nexus-related responses in terms of strategies, policy measures, planning and institutional set-up or interventions.

Logo fao

This report proposes a way to carry out a water-energy-food nexus assessment that can be used by stakeholders concerned with the development and management of resources, and in line with the global sustainability agenda. The WEF nexus assessment can be used to assess the nexus interlinkages at any scale, although data are usually available at country level. It can highlight synergies between sector interventions, so-called ‘win-win’ solutions, helping stakeholders to develop insights into different options, which might not be apparent at first glance. The objectives of such an assessment are to:

  1. provide an overview of the current nexus status of the context in terms of natural resources and their uses to sustain society, through the identification and quantification of key nexus interlinkages;
  2. apply specific tools to derive this information that is not readily available (for which indicators are not already available);
  3. review and suggest how specific Nexus interventions can be assessed and compare the performance of specific interventions on the basis of the context status against WEF sustainability goals; and
  4. interpret the results of the nexus assessment, contextualize possible interventions and appropriate response options.

The ultimate goal of the WEF nexus assessment is to inform nexus-related responses in terms of strategies, policy measures, planning and institutional set-up or interventions.

The document is divided into six chapters. Chapters 2 and 3 highlight what the water-energy-food nexus is and why it is important, and outline the nexus concept, as a link between different societal interests and targets with the natural and human resources they rely upon. These linkages can change because of drivers external to the water, energy and food sectors and many of those drivers are outside human control (or are simply considered external factors). Chapter 4 presents the nexus assessment, as a stepwise approach to quantify nexus issues and assess the impacts of different intervention options. Chapter 5 presents a number of typical nexus-related interventions, highlighting for each their performance in terms of resource use efficiency and suggesting a set of indicators specific for each type of intervention. Finally, chapter 6 summarizes the lessons learned and suggests possible ways forward.

Download

Assessing the Water-Energy-Food Nexus in the Context of the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative

Published

July 2014

By

FAO

In

FAO Environment and Natural Ressources Management Working Paper 58

¡Mantente al día!

Le informamos sobre los proyectos, eventos, acciones, publicaciones y noticias actuales!