Hydropower plays an important role as the global energy system moves towards a less carbon-intensive and sustainable future as promoted under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This article provides a systematic review of the impacts from policy, climate change and Water-Energy-Food (W-E-F) nexus on hydropower development at global scale. Asia, Africa and Latin America are hotspots promoting hydropower development with capacity expansion, while Europe and North America focus on performance improvement and environment impacts mitigation. Climate change is projected to improve gross hydropower potential (GHP) at high latitude of North Hemisphere and tropical Africa and decrease that in the US, South Africa and south and central Europe. Analysis from W-E-F nexus highlights the importance of integrated approaches as well as cross-sectoral coordination so as to improve resources use efficiency and achieve sustainable hydropower development. These three factors together shape the future of hydropower and need to be considered for planning and operation purpose.

IFPRI3; Open Access | PR | EPTD | Journal article

Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) is not only a prominent, globally promoted policy to foster nature conservation, but also increasingly propagated as an innovative and self-sustaining governance instrument to support poverty alleviation and to guarantee water, food, and energy securities. In this paper, we evaluate a PES scheme from a multi-scalar and political-ecology perspective in order to reveal different power dynamics across the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus perspective. For this purpose, we analyze the PES scheme implemented in the Hidrosogamoso hydropower project in Colombia. The paper shows that actors’ strongly divergent economic and political power is determinant in defining how and for whom the Nexus-related water, food, and energy securities are materialized. In this case, the PES scheme and its scalar politics, as fostered by the private/public hydropower alliance, are instrumental to guaranteeing water security for the hydropower scheme, which is a crucial building-block of Colombia’s energy security discourse. For this, the water and food securities of the adjacent, less powerful communities are sacrificed. Examining the on-the-ground politics of WEF Nexus is key to understanding their impact on equitable and sustainable governance of water, energy, and food in the everyday lives of millions of resource users. We conclude that politicizing the Nexus can help to trace both the flows of resources and the flows of power.

To attain sustainable development in Latin Ameica and the Caribbean, where there is a strong dependence on commodity and food price development, priority attention towards energy, water, and food security is critical. In this literature and data analysis, we examined the baseline and trends of resource security based on the Water-Energy-Food Nexus concept. A performance index was developed to evaluate the progress in water, energy, and food security of the region, and a nexus-based index was developed to evaluate the inter-linkages of these resources. Finally, critical issues and challenges for sustainable development were addressed. Results showed that an unprecedented amount of infrastructure is needed to address increasing energy consumption. Emphasis should be placed on gradually replacing high carbon-sources that produce electricity with low carbon-energy systems and clean power production. Results also showed that water scarcity, given unequal distributions of rainfall, will be aggravated by changing climate conditions; improvements in water governance as well as water and sanitation provisions are needed. The region is a net exporter of food, at the expense of water availability and greenhouse gas emissions, and suffers from structural constraints. It is important to foster novel agricultural practices and sustainable food systems.

World hunger, according to the 2012 Global Hunger Index (GHI), has declined somewhat since 1990 but remains “serious.” The global average masks dramatic differences among regions and countries. Regionally, the highest GHI scores are in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. South Asia reduced its GHI score significantly between 1990 and 1996—mainly by reducing the share of underweight children— but could not maintain this rapid progress. Though Sub-Saharan Africa made less progress than South Asia in the 1990s, it has caught up since the turn of the millennium, with its 2012 GHI score falling below that of South Asia. From the 1990 GHI to the 2012 GHI, 15 countries reduced their scores by 50 percent or more. In terms of absolute progress, between the 1990 GHI and the 2012 GHI, Angola, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Malawi, Nicaragua, Niger, and Vietnam saw the largest improvements in their scores. Twenty countries still have levels of hunger that are “extremely alarming” or “alarming.” Most of the countries with alarming GHI scores are in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (the 2012 GHI does not, however, reflect the recent crisis in the Horn of Africa, which intensified in 2011, or the uncertain food situation in the Sahel). Two of the three countries with extremely alarming 2012 GHI scores—Burundi and Eritrea—are in Sub-Saharan Africa; the third country with an extremely alarming score is Haiti. Its GHI score fell by about one quarter from 1990 to 2001, but most of this improvement was reversed in subsequent years. The devastating January 2010 earthquake, although not yet fully captured by the 2012 GHI because of insufficient availability of recent data, pushed Haiti back into the category of “extremely alarming.” In contrast to recent years, the Democratic Republic of Congo is not listed as “extremely alarming,” because insufficient data are available to calculate the country’s GHI score. Current and reliable data are urgently needed to appraise the situation in the country. | Non-PR | IFPRI2; GRP24 | COM; MTID; DGO; EPTD; PHND; WCAO

The presence of cadmium (Cd) in food produced in Latin America has been highlighted in recent years. Cadmium can be toxic to humans at low levels, and therefore monitoring its presence in food is relevant for public health. Cadmium concentrations from different sources, such as water, soil, sediment, food, and beverages were examined and discussed to address the non-occupational exposure of the Latin American population to Cd. A literature review was conducted examining publications from 2015 to 2020 and data available in the ScienceDirect and PubMed databases. Twenty-eight papers reported on Cd in water, 49 reported Cd in soil and sediments, and 86 reported on Cd in food. We have identified and discussed the factors affecting the environmental behavior and bioaccumulation of Cd, the main species used in monitoring studies, and the necessity for future research. Brazil and Mexico are the countries that provided the most available information, whereas for some countries in Central America, no information was found. The Cd levels in food examined in these studies (mostly fish and cacao) were generally below the established maximum levels, indicating a low risk. When considering the presence of Cd in food, water, and soil, Cd fractionation and chemical speciation studies are fundamental to understanding which forms of Cd are the most toxic. In turn, studies on bioaccessibility and bioavailability of Cd in food are also needed for more adequate risk assessment, but they are currently scarce within Latin America.