Climate and southern Africa's water-energy-food nexus

Conway, Declan, Archer van Garderen, Emma, Deryng, Delphine, Dorling, Stephen, Krueger, Tobias, Landman, Willem, Lankford, Bruce, Lebek, Karen, Osborn, Timothy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8425-6799, Ringler, Claudia, Thurlow, James, Zhu, Tingju and Dalin, Carole (2015) Climate and southern Africa's water-energy-food nexus. Nature Climate Change, 5. pp. 837-846. ISSN 1758-678X

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Abstract

In southern Africa, the connections between climate and the water-energy-food nexus are strong. Physical and socioeconomic exposure to climate is high in many areas and in crucial economic sectors. Spatial interdependence is also high, driven for example, by the regional extent of many climate anomalies and river basins and aquifers that span national boundaries. There is now strong evidence of the effects of individual climate anomalies, but associations between national rainfall and Gross Domestic Product and crop production remain relatively weak. The majority of climate models project decreases in annual precipitation for southern Africa, typically by as much as 20% by the 2080s. Impact models suggest these changes would propagate into reduced water availability and crop yields. Recognition of spatial and sectoral interdependencies should inform policies, institutions and investments for enhancing water, energy and food security. Three key political and economic instruments could be strengthened for this purpose; the Southern African Development Community, the Southern African Power Pool, and trade of agricultural products amounting to significant transfers of embedded water.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sdg 2 - zero hunger,sdg 13 - climate action ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/zero_hunger
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Global Development (formerly School of International Development) University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Water Security Research Centre Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Climate Change Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Climatic Research Unit
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	06 Oct 2015 00:06
Last Modified:	14 Jun 2023 12:11
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/54621
DOI:	10.1038/nclimate2735

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