Sixth meeting of the Task Force on the Water-Food-Energy-Ecosystems Nexus

The sixth meeting Task Force on the Water-Food-Energy-Ecosystems Nexus was held in a hybrid format on 22 and 23 October 2020 under the leadership of Finland, with the support of the UNECE secretariat.

The meeting aimed to discuss the preliminary findings from a stocktaking exercise of “nexus solutions and investments” that the Water Convention Secretariat is developing in cooperation with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in response to a request from the Meeting of the Parties to The Convention (Nur-Sultan, 10-12 October 2018). The stocktaking – based on a survey from stakeholders with experience of nexus solutions and investments around the world, including from nexus assessments and dialogues - aimed to provide clarity on the benefits and added value of implementing nexus solutions to solve the most typical problems affecting transboundary basins in terms of water quantity, quality, and environment.  Designing, planning, and implementing nexus solutions and investments is in the interest of all policy makers (notably from the nexus sectors of energy and agriculture) because these are associated to lower political risks (broader consensus), higher levels of  coherence  when  it  comes  to  cross-sectoral  goals (e.g. climate goals) and broader benefits (multiple interests), than strictly sectorally developed solutions. Experience of financing nexus investments was also discussed.

During the meeting, the Task Force further discussed future work under the Water Convention's programme of work for 2021-2024 related to 1) water allocation (development of a Handbook on Water Allocation in a Transboundary Context is on-going as part of the Programme of Work 2019-2021) and 2) activities on the water-food-energy-ecosystems nexus.