Water, energy and food security

Water, energy and food are inextricably linked and underpin the development and expansionary nature of current global trade and productivity models. Global concerns about limited access to these three fundamentals for life are compounded by growing concerns about their future availability and sustainability. Adding more people to an increasingly urbanized planet will exert significant pressure on the level and complexity of trade-offs required among these three development goals; trade-offs that at the same time must act to minimize the potential to accelerate ecosystem degradation. This paper argues that realizing long-term water, energy and food security is possible; however, a “business as usual” approach cannot achieve this. A transformation in thinking and approach is necessary with the adoption of new management and development opportunities, which are enabled by innovative technology. A new approach, thinking in a Nexus perspective, is at the core to redefining our understanding of the inter-relationships between the water, energy and food security, and is a fundamental tenet to realizing the Green Economy. This paradigm shift is vital to achieving the sustainability development goals in an environment of global climate and economic change.