Water, food and energy security in drylands: Challenges triggered by global changes

摘要

The global drylands – comprising over 40％of the land surface area – are facing a triple threat as a result of a number of converging global crises: increasing water scarcity,decreasing food supply,and inadequate access to modern energy services.The global crises that are fueling these threats are multiple,but interlinked,including global climate change,booming population(particularly in drylands countries where this is also coupled with changing demographics and rising ‘youth bulge’),political upheaval(including the so-called ‘Arab Spring’),sharply rising food prices,and increasing unemployment amongst the youth.As a result of these threats,governments,civil society,the international development community and the United Nations system are all concerned about the nexus of water,food and energy security – these form a triangular relationship that ultimately has a bearing on national security,societal stability and environmental sustainability.Pulling on any of the apexes of the triangle has direct and profound impacts on the other two.Water is critical to food production and energy generation at all levels.Food production,processing and transport require energy resources while water utilization is embedded within each step.Sufficient and modern energy supply – both renewable and non-renewable – requires water,but is also increasing overlapping with food production as many dryland countries are eyeing biofuel production in lieu of growing food crops.Since 2008,food prices have been rising sharply – FAO predicts that the era of “cheap” food is over; this volatility in the international food market can also be directly correlated to malnutrition,poverty and political unrest.While we may presently have sufficient food,water and energy at the global aggregate level,drylands region are very strongly disadvantaged in terms of this triple security nexus.The situation may be further exacerbated in the coming decade or so as increasing affluence may put incremental demands on water,food and energy.We no longer have the luxury to plan and design policies and approaches for addressing water,food and energy security independently of each other – getting this right is much more critical for drylands.Despite this obvious strategic interest,spanning traditional sectoral divides is not easy; policy inertia would perhaps be the greatest hurdle.This paper discusses emerging ideas for policy integration,including some case studies from dryland countries.These ideas link directly with a new international economic and social development regime that is emerging as we approach the conclusion of the Millennium Development Goals in 2015,and look beyond.