Nexus Conference 2014 abstract suggestions
The Nexus Conference 2014 (3-7 March) is gaining pace Liz Thompson former Barbados Energy and Environment Minister is a confirmed speaker with Adnan Amin Director General of IRENA and expect additional announcements in the next week.
The agenda was announced a few weeks ago and will have 8 plenary sessions and Nexus dating :-)
To help the Advisory Board and Secretariat have come up with some areas that we think would be interesting abstract areas - these are only suggestions but if you are doing work in these areas do submit by November 1st details on how are on the Conference web site.
Abstract
suggested areas
These are suggested areas for possible
abstracts. They do not represent what will be chosen but areas that we will be
looking at next year in the future.
The nexus approach requires systemic
thinking and a quest for integrated solutions to guide our decision-making
about resource use and development and move to a more sustainable planet
.
Urban
Challenges of the Nexus: Local and Global perspective
The world has passed the second wave of
urbanization with more than 50% of the population now living in urban areas
which is expected to rise to 60% by 2030. The challenge for providing increased
food, water and energy is huge and interlinked
- What is the potential for urban agriculture and urban water reuse?
- What are the challenges for urban energy and water supply under increased climate change?
- What are policy makers doing to address the needs of cities of the future?
- What are the drivers for sustainable urban development through a Nexus lens?
- How can city utilities work together to reduce waste?
- How well do cities ensure the protection of ecosystems and watersheds necessary for water supply?
- How do we address Nexus pressures through urban planning?
- What can be done to build resilience of the Nexus?
Nexus
perspectives: Water, Energy and Climate
Water and energy are a symbiotic
relationship. All types of energy provision consume water, and water supply and
sewage disposal require energy. Explore traditional and alternative energy
sources and the challenges and opportunities moving forward
- What role do Dams play in the Nexus? Are we measuring impacts and benefits correctly?
- Consumer behaviour: What’s the tipping point for reducing water and energy use?
- What can be done to reduce water use in solar provision?
- Biofuels and water use: complementary or competition?
- What can be done to improve water and energy efficiency in irrigation?
- Fracking: a challenge or opportunity for energy and water management?
- How do rising US energy demands affect water supply?
- What can we learn from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster?
- What are practical solutions to increase water efficiency in energy production?
- What are the innovations in managing the agriculture-groundwater and energy nexus?
- Are there different approaches to managing energy and water supply in different regions?
- Biofuels: how do we identify opportunities and manage risks in developing countries?
- Are we measuring the right impacts and trade-offs?
- Power asymmetries – how the nexus reveals power dynamics between sectors
Nexus perspectives:
Water, Food and Climate
Agriculture is one of the dominant water
users in the US and abroad. Understanding how to conserve water and reuse water
can have a dramatic effect on water availability and food production in the
future.
- How can we safely use wastewater in food production?
- Irrigating from the sky: Is rainwater harvesting a viable solution to adaptable to water resource management at a large scale?
- How are women and girls influenced by resource depletion?
- Population growth: addressing pressures on water, food, and energy supplies.
- What are the key challenges for soil retention and water use?
- How can we minimize food and water waste at the consumer and producer level?
- Water for food: managing as climate change impacts.
- What are the implications of climate change on fisheries within inland waters?
- Efficient agriculture: how can energy use be reduced?
- Policy challenge: sustaining US Water Aquifers while exporting food abroad?
- Eating and drinking in the future: How do we provide for billions more people?
- How can integrating sanitation and bio-waste management address local energy production and food security?
- What are climate changes implications for livestock and their need for water?
- What are the drought preparedness and planning in the US to deal with lose of agriculture production?
- What can be done to improving resource use efficiency for food security in a changing climate? What are the implications of the climate-water-food-energy nexus to Africa?
- What can be done to improve the water and energy efficiency for food production through irrigation?
- Mega producers: Collaborating around water-food-energy Nexus
Natural
Resource Security for People: Water, Food and Energ
As the challenges for water, energy and
food become greater the competition for these resources will also increase.
Individuals, companies, and countries need to think critically about resource
management and use now and in the future.
- What are the security implications of climate change on water and food?
- What role can Integrated Resource Management a play issue of security and the nexus?
- What are the security implications of scarcity in global water?
- Thirsty Crops – a security issue?
- What are the transboundary challenges of the Nexus?
- Are ecosystems the basis of water security?
- Energy, Resources, and the Environment: New Security Parameters?
- Rethinking Human Security in a Nexus world.
Entrepreneurial Environmentalism and Development
- What are new innovations in monitoring energy and water use in a climate challenged planet?
- How can start ups address nexus issues in their business from the start?
- How can Solar energy production reduce water use and move from boutique to mainstream?
- Can CSAs and the local food movement reduce water use: and does small business and farms have an big effect on climate change?
- How are entrepreneurs driving the renewable energy and water conversation and reality?
- Venture capital: what is the pulse on investing in nexus (water-food-energy) solutions?
- How is grass roots advocacy changing the conversation around Nexus issues?
- What role can Microfinance play in address nexus challenges in creating new businesses in developing countries: Is there a link?
Nexus
Corporate Stewardship: How business is improving resource use
Industry is a great user of water and
energy, and major food producer. How can corporations address competitive
demand and related resource use? What are corporate best practices in
sustainability and “greening” business?
- Public-private-government partnerships: examples of collaboration for the Nexus approach.
- How is biofuel production related to food production?
- What can business do to reduce their water footprint in energy provision?
- Business water risk – what are the implications for water policy and management?
- How do companies begin to address nexus issues as business strategy and not just Corporate Social Responsibility?
- Who is leading the charge around improving corporate environmental practices?
- What are the investment opportunities surrounding Nexus-related business?
- How do we calculate financial risk related to water, food, and energy shortages?
- Techies: What are emerging technologies to address Nexus issues?
- What are the elements for successful business approaches to the Water-Energy-Food Nexus?
- What are the industry and environmental implications for fracking and how can they be addressed?
Financing
the Nexus: policy and practice
Often funding is through sectors and if
in a more interlinked world how can traditional and new funding be utilized.
1.
Development bank financing for the Nexus.
•
Who’s Paying: The
role of multilateral banks in the nexus?
•
Lessons for
addressing Climate and the Nexus – are there financial tradeoffs to be made?
•
What role could
the development banks play in protecting financing for Ecosystem Services for
the Nexus?
•
Drinking Water as
a Priority Use of Water in the Context of International Investments in
Agriculture
2.
Foreign and Impact investment for the Nexus
•
How can we grow
impact investing?
•
What role can FDI
play in Nexus funding?
•
How do we begin
to ‘value’ the ecosystems that underpin our supply?
•
What are the
elements that support the creating of public-private partnership for the Nexus?
3.
Organizing framework setting out the capital market
system structure to address Nexus issues
•
How can we
generate demand for appropriate behavior by financial institutions?
•
How can the
markets better relate to sustainable development?
•
How can we
increase the influence of fund managers voice in influencing flow and cost of
capital?
•
How can corporate
and sovereign debt be utilized?
4. Role
of government and ODA in financing and regulating the Nexus
•
What can be done
to regulate Water, Food and Energy Futures?
•
What could be
done to set up a global framework for Nexus sustainability reporting
•
What role can ODA
play in Nexus funding?
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