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The global governance of water, energy, and food nexus: allocation and access for competing demands

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Abstract

Globally, 3 billion people are without access to modern fuels or technologies for cooking/heating, 900 million people lack access to safe water, 2.6 billion lack improved sanitation, 2 billion people lack food security intermittently, and more than 820 million people are chronically hungry due to extreme poverty. This paper on the allocation of and access to water, energy and food (WEF) nexus rests on the ‘Rawlsian’ conception of distributive justice to human security and the competing demands for WEF. Based on a review of papers on access and allocation published from 2008 through 2020, this paper finds that ‘policy coordination’ among all the actors (at all levels in general and local levels in particular) governing the water–energy–food nexus is the key to promoting equitable allocation of and access to WEF. Only legitimate governance with robust legal structures in place can provide for the equitable allocation in the WEF nexus. Effective stakeholder participation in governance of the nexus is necessary and ensured when power asymmetries, interdependencies and rights are accounted for in principles of procedural justice. Moreover, to ensure access to people in the WEF nexus, the distribution of the three goods and related rights must be delivered as a ‘triplet’. This will promote the goal to mitigate trade-offs and promote synergies among the resources as well as conserve the environment within the context of the Sustainable Development Goals.

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Fig. 1

Source: The basic tenets of the analysis is taken from (Gupta and Lebel 2010) and adjusted it to include Energy and the Food

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Abbreviations

CDM:

Clean Development Mechanism

CER:

Certified emission reductions

ENGO’s:

Environmental nongovernmental organisations

FAO:

Food and Agricultural Organisation

GHG:

Greenhouse gas

GMO:

Genetically modified organisms

IEA:

International Energy Agency

IFPRI:

International Food Policy Research Institute

IPCC:

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

IRENA:

International Renewable Energy Agency

LDC’s:

Less developed countries

OECD:

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

SDG:

Sustainable development goals

UNDESA:

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs

UNEP:

United Nations Environment Programme

UNFCCC:

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

WCD:

World Commission on Dams

WEC:

World Energy Council

WEF:

Water, energy, and food

WTO:

World Trade Organisation

WUA’s:

Water User’s Association

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  1. School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Indore, Indore, 453552, India

    Pritee Sharma & Salla Nithyanth Kumar

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Sharma, P., Kumar, S.N. The global governance of water, energy, and food nexus: allocation and access for competing demands. Int Environ Agreements 20, 377–391 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10784-020-09488-2

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