Bonn 2011 Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus Conference Publishes Policy Recommendations

The results of the “Bonn2011 Conference: The Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus – Solutions for a Green Economy” have been published in the form of a conference synopsis and set of policy recommendations.The conference, which took place from 16-18 November 2011, in Bonn, Germany, was attended by over 500 participants and was organized to facilitate the creation of a specific German contribution to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20).

The policy recommendations document is noted to have been the result of a broad participatory stakeholder process and states that “achieving water, energy and food security, and consequently reducing hunger and eradicating poverty, is a central future challenge that is possible even under difficult and challenging global economic conditions.” The document focuses on developing a “nexus approach” that stresses: policy and action coherence between water, energy and agricultural policy-making and sectors; accelerating access to energy, sanitation and food; increasing resource efficiency; valuing natural infrastructure; and mobilizing consumer influence. It concludes with messages on taking action and assigning specific responsibilities to national governments and parliamentarians, international and development organizations, local authorities and utilities, business and the private sector, financiers, and civil society.

The conference synopsis document: summarises conference high-level speaker highlights; examines avariety of issues discussed at the conference, such as understanding the nexus, interactions among sectors, coordinating efforts, climate change, bioenergy, water and hygiene, energy efficiency, and urbanisation; and provides case studies of the “nexus approach” in action, including one on “India: Nexus leads to annual 9.6% GDP growth” and another titled “New seawater greenhouse technology replenishes irrigation.”

The Conference was hosted by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the World Economic Forum and WWF as strategic partners.

• To download the Conference Synopsis click here.
• To download the conference Policy Recommendations click here.

Article originally published at iisd.org