The Water-Energy-Food Nexus in East Asia: A tele-connected value chain analysis using inter-regional input-output analysis

Abstract

Population and economic growth pose unique challenges in securing sufficient water, energy, and food to meet demand at the sub-national (regional), national, and supra-national level. An increasing share of this demand is met through trade and imports. The unprecedented rapid growth, extent, and complexity of global value chains (GVCs) since the 1980s have reshaped global trade. The GVCs-and new economic patterns of regionalization-affect the demands on water, energy, and food within countries and across global supply chains. East Asia is of particular interest due to the region"s rapid economic growth, substantial population size, high interdependence of the region"s economies, and varying degree of resource availability. While greater interdependence across the region has increased the efficiency of production and trade, these activities require the input of water-energy-food and generate disturbances in the environment. The transnational interregional input-output approach is utilized in a tele-connected Water-Energy-Food Nexus (WEFN) analysis of the East Asia GVC to assess competing demands for these resources and environmental outcomes. This analysis demonstrates the hidden virtual flows of water, energy, and food embodied in intraregional and transnational interregional trade. China"s current national export oriented economic growth strategy in East Asia is not sustainable from the WEFN perspective. In terms of water-energy-food, China is a net virtual exporter to Japan and South Korea. China"s prioritization of economic growth and trade in low value added and pollution intensive sectors consumes a great amount of water-energy-food within its territory to satisfy consumers" demands in Japan and South Korea. Japan"s Kanto and Kinki regions and South Korea"s Sudokwon region were the major beneficiaries while China bore the environmental burden associated with the production of exports. For example, net virtual exports from China"s East region included over 1.2 billion m 3 of scarce water and 61.3 million metric (CO 2 equivalent) tons of greenhouse gases (i.e. CO 2 , NH 4 , and N 2 O) and 2 million metric tons of SO x emissions. Trade is an important mechanism for overcoming resource bottlenecks, but, taking into account environmental linkages, regional specialization is not necessarily mutually beneficial. This analysis demonstrates a mismatch between regional water-energy-food availability and final resource consumption and the lack of attention for environmental impacts in national economic growth strategies. Resource scarce countries like China must, therefore, incorporate trade-off decisions between pursuing national economic growth, incurring environmental degradation, and food security into strategic regional development policies.

(Re)thinking (re)connection: Young people, “natures” and the water–energy–food nexus in São Paulo State, Brazil

“…In terms of the former, several recent studies have used value-chain analyses (White et al, 2017) or indicators of resource use across sectors (Vilanova & Balestieri, 2015). These analyses account for resource bottlenecks, hidden flows and environmental impacts that might help resolve "trade-offs" between different parts of any given nexus and which, in turn, might inform regional economic development policies (White et al, 2017). In terms of the latter, several recent studies have focused on nexus regulation (Larcom & van Gevelt, 2017) and governance (Weitz et al, 2017), with efforts to evaluate critically whether and how the nexus as a contemporary "buzzword" privileges integrated, technocratic forms of environmental policy making (Cairns & Krzywoszynska, 2016).…”

A 40-year review of food–energy–water nexus literature and its application to the urban scale

“…This would involve coupling urban spatial data with other novel datasets (e.g. trade data, forestry data, geospatial water scarcity data) to track these flows (Flach et al 2016, White et al 2018.…”

Towards a Psychology of the Food‐Energy‐Water Nexus: Costs and Opportunities

“…We are aware of a few exceptions. There is a growing literature on “nexus governance” that investigates collaborations across government agencies, organizations, and stakeholder groups applied to issues such as wastewater reuse (Kurian et al., ) and hydropower on shared rivers (Dombrowsky & Hensengerth, ), as well as analyses of nexus governance in specific cities (Daher et al., ; White, Hubacek, Feng, Sun, & Meng, ). A focus on governance issues is important as laws and policies are often implemented when decisions related to food, energy, and water services are made (Kurian et al., ).…”