Post 2015: Why is the Water-Energy-Land Nexus Important for the Future Development Agenda?

Brandi, Clara; Richerzhagen, Carmen; Stepping, Katharina M. K.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2685650

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Entwicklungspolitik and the Stockholm Environment Institute have proposed a nexus approach to support cross-sectoral integration for the SDGs (Brandi et al 2013;Weitz et al 2014). The Colombian Government has shown support for a nexus approach to the SDGs to foster dialogue on broad development issues rather than sectoral challenges, thereby enabling interactions to emerge as central foci (Weitz et al 2014).…”

Section: Recent Initiatives On the Wef Nexusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracing the Water–Energy–Food Nexus: Description, Theory and Practice

Leck¹,

Conway²,

et al. 2015

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The 'nexus' between water, energy and food (WEF) has gained increasing attention globally in research, business and policy spheres. We review the premise of recent initiatives framed around the nexus, examine the challenge of achieving the type of disciplinary boundary crossing promoted by the nexus agenda and consider how to operationalise what has to date been a largely paper exercise. The WEF nexus has been promoted through international meetings and calls for new research agendas. It is clear from the literature that many aims of nexus approaches pre-date the recent nexus agenda; these have encountered significant barriers to progress, including challenges to cross-disciplinary collaboration, complexity, political economy (often perceived to be under-represented in nexus research) and incompatibility of current institutional structures. Indeed, the ambitious aims of the nexus-the desire to capture multiple interdependencies across three major sectors, across disciplines and across scales-could become its downfall. However, greater recognition of interdependencies across state and non-state actors, more sophisticated modelling systems to assess and quantify WEF linkages and the sheer scale of WEF resource use globally, could create enough momentum to overcome historical barriers and establish nexus approaches as part of a wider repertoire of responses to global environmental change.

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Section: Recent Initiatives On the Wef Nexusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracing the Water–Energy–Food Nexus: Description, Theory and Practice

Leck¹,

Conway²,

et al. 2015

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“…Consequently, e f has been broken down into different components: bioproductive land, built land, water, carbon emissions (effectively cf), embodied energy, transport and waste components, respectively. This component-based approach (following Simmons et al, 2000;Eaton et al, 2007;Alderson et al, 2012) facilitates the examination of sustainability issues broadly, along with specific matters, such as the linkages associated with the so-called ELW nexus (Brandi et al, 2013). It provides a means of comparing the various footprint components on a common basis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Environmental footprinting provides an, albeit imperfect, approach to evaluating natural capital or ecosystem services impacts that arise from the ELW demands of humanity (Brandi et al, 2013). An estimate of the global amount of water required per litre of biofuel production was computed here for the overall life cycle of global biofuel production, which is mainly used during the agricultural activities that produce the biofuel feedstocks.…”

Section: Total Environmental Footprint Of Biofuelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A key subset is the so‐called nexus, or set of complex interactions, between energy requirements, land uses and water consumption levels worldwide (Liu et al ., ). This energy–land–water [ELW] nexus (Brandi et al ., ) gives rise to multiple positive and negative impacts that have recently been widely debated in policymaking circles. Energy generation is obviously the main driver for anthropogenic climate change, whilst there are competing demands on land use [both LUC and iLUC (Hammond & Jones, ; Hammond & Seth, )] for both food and biofuel production.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Environmental and resource burdens associated with world biofuel production out to 2050: footprint components from carbon emissions and land use to waste arisings and water consumption

Hammond

2016

GCB Bioenergy

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Environmental or ‘ecological’ footprints have been widely used in recent years as indicators of resource consumption and waste absorption presented in terms of biologically productive land area [in global hectares (gha)] required per capita with prevailing technology. In contrast, ‘carbon footprints’ are the amount of carbon (or carbon dioxide equivalent) emissions for such activities in units of mass or weight (like kilograms per functional unit), but can be translated into a component of the environmental footprint (on a gha basis). The carbon and environmental footprints associated with the world production of liquid biofuels have been computed for the period 2010–2050. Estimates of future global biofuel production were adopted from the 2011 International Energy Agency (IEA) ‘technology roadmap’ for transport biofuels. This suggests that, although first generation biofuels will dominate the market up to 2020, advanced or second generation biofuels might constitute some 75% of biofuel production by 2050. The overall environmental footprint was estimated to be 0.29 billion (bn) gha in 2010 and is likely to grow to around 2.57 bn gha by 2050. It was then disaggregated into various components: bioproductive land, built land, carbon emissions, embodied energy, materials and waste, transport, and water consumption. This component‐based approach has enabled the examination of the Manufactured and Natural Capital elements of the ‘four capitals’ model of sustainability quite broadly, along with specific issues (such as the linkages associated with the so‐called energy–land–water nexus). Bioproductive land use was found to exhibit the largest footprint component (a 48% share in 2050), followed by the carbon footprint (23%), embodied energy (16%), and then the water footprint (9%). Footprint components related to built land, transport and waste arisings were all found to account for an insignificant proportion to the overall environmental footprint, together amounting to only about 2%

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“…The rapid emergence of the nexus can be seen as rather surprising, given that the nexus as a concept is still not clearly defined and-despite efforts, in particular by Germany [6,7]-it was included neither in the Outcome Document of Rio+20 nor in the Sustainable Development Goals.…”

Section: Introduction: the Emergence Of Water-energy-food Nexusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water-Energy-Food Nexus in Large Asian River Basins

Keskinen

Varis

2016

Water

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Abstract:The water-energy-food nexus ("nexus") is promoted as an approach to look at the linkages between water, energy and food. The articles of Water's Special Issue "Water-Energy-Food Nexus in Large Asian River Basins" look at the applicability of the nexus approach in different regions and rivers basins in Asia. The articles provide practical examples of the various roles and importance of water-energy-food linkages, but also discuss the theoretical aspects related to the nexus. While it is evident that any application of the nexus must be case-specific, some general lessons can be learnt as well. Firstly, there are a variety of interpretations for the nexus. These include three complementary perspectives that see nexus as an analytical approach, governance framework and emerging discourse. Secondly, nexus is-despite its name-a predominantly water-sector driven and water-centered concept. While this brings some benefits by, e.g., setting systemic boundaries, it is also the nexus' biggest challenge: If the nexus is not able to ensure buy-in from food and energy sector actors, its added value will stay limited. Ultimately, however, what really matters is not the approach itself but the processes it helps to establish and outcomes it helps to create. Through its focus on water-energy-food linkages-rather than on those themes separately-the nexus is well positioned to help us to take a more systemic view on water, energy and food and, hence, to advance sustainable development.

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Post 2015: Why is the Water-Energy-Land Nexus Important for the Future Development Agenda?

Cited by 11 publications

References 33 publications

Tracing the Water–Energy–Food Nexus: Description, Theory and Practice

Tracing the Water–Energy–Food Nexus: Description, Theory and Practice

Environmental and resource burdens associated with world biofuel production out to 2050: footprint components from carbon emissions and land use to waste arisings and water consumption

Water-Energy-Food Nexus in Large Asian River Basins

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