Reconciling the competing and sometimes incompatible objectives of the water, energy and food sectors and environmental protection is fraught with difficulties even at the national level, but the complexity increases substantially in transboundary basins where impacts from sectoral activities and policies spread from one country to another.
A new report by UNECE highlights the value of the “nexus approach” to managing interlinked resources, which has emerged as a way to enhance water, energy and food security by increasing efficiency, reducing trade-offs, building synergies and improving governance, while protecting ecosystems.
The report is based on the assessment of resource management carried out in three river basins: the Alazani/Ganykh in the Caucasus (shared by Azerbaijan and Georgia); the Sava in South-Eastern Europe (shared by Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia); and the Syr Darya in Central Asia (shared by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan). In these subregions, riparian countries seek economic development, and water, energy, land and environmental resources will play a key role in meeting those aspirations.
The report contains a new assessment methodology, which will provide a useful model for countries and basin organizations interested in undertaking a diagnostic study to support more coherent policy development. The report was launched at the seventh session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention) in Budapest, where the approach was widely commended for its potential to increase intersectoral dialogue both within national administrations but also at the transboundary level.
Among the examples featured in the report is the Sava Basin, where current and planned hydropower facilities will generate as much as a third of the renewable energies for the five countries sharing the basin. However, countries need to strike a balance between increasing energy generation, the ambitious European Union climate and energy policy targets and maintaining a good status of shared waters — which may be compromised by hydropower development. In this situation, transboundary cooperation may be the best strategy for increasing countries’ energy security, decarbonizing the energy system and also increasing preparedness for extreme hydrological events, which present an ever-more pressing challenge owing to climate change.
In the Syr Darya Basin, without transboundary cooperation and consideration of different water users’ needs, even the existing flow regulation infrastructure cannot be optimally used. An important element in balancing water needs in the agricultural and energy sectors is the increased efficiency of water and energy use. Without restoration of the Central Asian regional electricity grid and development of other connections and energy trading, major energy capacity expansions may have limited utility. Diversification of energy sources, with increased integration of other renewable energy sources and also fossil fuels, would further establish conditions for a more effective and sustainable use of water resources.
In most cases, sustainable management of basin resources requires not only larger, but also better and more coordinated investment in infrastructure, including also natural alternatives (such as wetlands). For example, all the basins assessed have significant undeveloped hydropower potential, but measures to minimize the negative impacts on the ecosystems and on other water uses need to be taken to make the process sustainable. To do so, the report outlines some of the assessments’ targeted recommendations for the different basins, including: application of guidelines and improving sustainability in siting, design and construction (Alazani/Ganykh); coordinating hydropower investments with investments in other renewable energy sources (Sava); and implementing water- and energy-efficiency programmes to slow the burden of investment in new generation capacity (Syr Darya).
Finally, the report stresses that developing an adequate institutional framework is crucial to ensuring a constructive transboundary dialogue on national sectoral plans and their effects. In this regard, the Water Convention promotes cooperation, including establishment of joint institutions for transboundary cooperation.
The report is available at: http://www.unece.org/index.php?id=41427&L=0
Note to editors:
The term nexus refers to water, energy and food sectors being so strongly interlinked that actions in one area commonly impacts on one or both sectors. These sectors all too often operate in isolation, and seeking security in one sector may in fact compromise others. The assessments compiled in the UNECE report ‘Reconciling resource uses in transboundary basins: assessment of the water-food-energy-ecosystem nexus’ were prepared in close cooperation with the national administrations of the riparian countries.
The methodology employed was developed specifically for assessing the nexus in transboundary basins with multidisciplinary expertise and was applied with support from various partner organizations. It is applicable to diverse transboundary basins and aquifers.
The basin assessments were carried out an assessment of the water-food-energy-ecosystems nexus in selected transboundary basins as a part of the work programme for 2013–2015 adopted by the Parties to the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention).
The Water Convention was signed in 1992 and entered into force in 1996. It is a framework instrument for management and protection of transboundary waters. Initially negotiated as pan-European treaty, the Water Convention was amended in 2003 to open its membership to all United Nations Member States. It currently has 41 Parties.
The seventh Meeting of the Parties to the Water Convention was held in Budapest, Hungary from 17 to 19 November 2015.
A new report by UNECE highlights the value of the “nexus approach” to managing interlinked resources, which has emerged as a way to enhance water, energy and food security by increasing efficiency, reducing trade-offs, building synergies and improving governance, while protecting ecosystems.
The report is based on the assessment of resource management carried out in three river basins: the Alazani/Ganykh in the Caucasus (shared by Azerbaijan and Georgia); the Sava in South-Eastern Europe (shared by Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia); and the Syr Darya in Central Asia (shared by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan). In these subregions, riparian countries seek economic development, and water, energy, land and environmental resources will play a key role in meeting those aspirations.
The report contains a new assessment methodology, which will provide a useful model for countries and basin organizations interested in undertaking a diagnostic study to support more coherent policy development. The report was launched at the seventh session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention) in Budapest, where the approach was widely commended for its potential to increase intersectoral dialogue both within national administrations but also at the transboundary level.
Among the examples featured in the report is the Sava Basin, where current and planned hydropower facilities will generate as much as a third of the renewable energies for the five countries sharing the basin. However, countries need to strike a balance between increasing energy generation, the ambitious European Union climate and energy policy targets and maintaining a good status of shared waters — which may be compromised by hydropower development. In this situation, transboundary cooperation may be the best strategy for increasing countries’ energy security, decarbonizing the energy system and also increasing preparedness for extreme hydrological events, which present an ever-more pressing challenge owing to climate change.
In the Syr Darya Basin, without transboundary cooperation and consideration of different water users’ needs, even the existing flow regulation infrastructure cannot be optimally used. An important element in balancing water needs in the agricultural and energy sectors is the increased efficiency of water and energy use. Without restoration of the Central Asian regional electricity grid and development of other connections and energy trading, major energy capacity expansions may have limited utility. Diversification of energy sources, with increased integration of other renewable energy sources and also fossil fuels, would further establish conditions for a more effective and sustainable use of water resources.
In most cases, sustainable management of basin resources requires not only larger, but also better and more coordinated investment in infrastructure, including also natural alternatives (such as wetlands). For example, all the basins assessed have significant undeveloped hydropower potential, but measures to minimize the negative impacts on the ecosystems and on other water uses need to be taken to make the process sustainable. To do so, the report outlines some of the assessments’ targeted recommendations for the different basins, including: application of guidelines and improving sustainability in siting, design and construction (Alazani/Ganykh); coordinating hydropower investments with investments in other renewable energy sources (Sava); and implementing water- and energy-efficiency programmes to slow the burden of investment in new generation capacity (Syr Darya).
Finally, the report stresses that developing an adequate institutional framework is crucial to ensuring a constructive transboundary dialogue on national sectoral plans and their effects. In this regard, the Water Convention promotes cooperation, including establishment of joint institutions for transboundary cooperation.
The report is available at: http://www.unece.org/index.php?id=41427&L=0
Note to editors:
The term nexus refers to water, energy and food sectors being so strongly interlinked that actions in one area commonly impacts on one or both sectors. These sectors all too often operate in isolation, and seeking security in one sector may in fact compromise others. The assessments compiled in the UNECE report ‘Reconciling resource uses in transboundary basins: assessment of the water-food-energy-ecosystem nexus’ were prepared in close cooperation with the national administrations of the riparian countries.
The methodology employed was developed specifically for assessing the nexus in transboundary basins with multidisciplinary expertise and was applied with support from various partner organizations. It is applicable to diverse transboundary basins and aquifers.
The basin assessments were carried out an assessment of the water-food-energy-ecosystems nexus in selected transboundary basins as a part of the work programme for 2013–2015 adopted by the Parties to the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention).
The Water Convention was signed in 1992 and entered into force in 1996. It is a framework instrument for management and protection of transboundary waters. Initially negotiated as pan-European treaty, the Water Convention was amended in 2003 to open its membership to all United Nations Member States. It currently has 41 Parties.
The seventh Meeting of the Parties to the Water Convention was held in Budapest, Hungary from 17 to 19 November 2015.
Contact for additional information:
Ms. Annukka Lipponen
UNECE, Environment Division
Tel.: +41 (0) 22 917 2666
Email: [email protected]