The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) has been highlighting the need to address water-energy-food (WEF) challenges in the contexts of communities and watersheds to ensure that ecosystems comprising land and water systems are managed for their full range of benefits, ensuring these critical components of human security.

A key component of managing WEF security is understanding the component systems, how they are functioning and how they respond to development, climate and other pressures. To effectively manage WEF security for a community or region, one needs to monitor and understand each of the three systems. Understanding each system accurately in turn relies on monitoring and reporting of system parameters. To provide guidance on effective and high-quality monitoring, this report focuses on the details of water monitoring, including issues such as monitoring system design, site selection, monitoring frequency, reporting, etc. to enhance its ability to inform water and watershed management.

Hydrologic Information systems (HISs) are systems for measuring, processing, storing and disseminating interlinked aspects of watershed data including the quantity and quality of climate, surface water, and groundwater. This report explains the key components of an HIS in the context of mining development, linking to the need for HIS to better understand and management for overall WEF security. The report provides detailed guidance on water monitoring as a means of measuring and managing the benefits that contribute to regional security. Characterization of water systems requires monitoring of the flow, storage and use of water, and comprehensive watershed monitoring inevitably incorporates socioeconomic parameters along with the more typical biophysical ones. This research highlights the crucial role of HISs in the wise management of water resources.

Subsidies for the consumption of fossil fuels were estimated at US$550 billion in 2013, according to the International Energy Agency.

This report by IISD and the Nordic Council of Ministers modeled the impact of removing fossil fuel subsidies in 20 countries between 2015 and 2020. The results show that this alone would reduce national emissions, against business as usual, by an average of 11 per cent. By taking 30 per cent of subsidy savings, and investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency, national emissions are reduced further to an average of 18 per cent by 2020. The report also includes case studies of reform in the Philippines, Morocco and Jordan. 

This study, undertaken by IISD-GSI and ICF International, untangles the energy-water nexus by analyzing how subsidized electricity has incentivized groundwater extraction in Haryana, India.

The research identifies agricultural subsidies in general and then quantifies the major irrigation, fertilizer and agricultural electricity subsidies. It finds that, in the basket of normalized electricity, surface irrigation and fertilizer subsidies available to farmers in 2015, the largest share of subsidies goes to electricity for groundwater extraction (51 per cent), followed by fertilizer subsidies (35 per cent). Taking subsidies as the percentage of profit margins, the study identifies that wheat farmers will have more difficulties with subsidy rationalization and rice farmers will have less.

The study concludes with options available for the reform of electricity, irrigation and fertilizer subsidies. Given the diversity of Haryana in terms of groundwater levels, canal water availability, electricity supply, fertilizer availability and soil quality, along with a host of other region-specific issues, this study recommends spatial targeting. Developing a crop-specific strategy for select districts is considered the only sustainable way forward. The paper highlights the financial case for energy-efficient pumpsets in particular regions. It also emphasizes the general need for more in-depth political economy analysis of the political action and influence by consumer groups from one side, and the operation and future of distribution companies from another.

Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) is about ensuring that the products and services purchased by governments are as sustainable as possible, both in the sense of generating the lowest possible environmental impact, and in the sense of producing the most positive social impacts.

By redesigning procurement policies and procedures, governments can trigger multiplier benefits internally and across society, creating efficiency gains, energy and financial savings, improved access to services and better working conditions. SPP can serve as a key policy driver allowing governments to use their purchasing power and regulatory influence to reshape markets.

This handbook is a tool for implementing SPP in the Latin American and Caribbean region, developed in cooperation with the Inter-American Network for Government Procurement (INGP). The INGP is a network of directors of public procurement authorities from 34 countries in the Americas, working to raise awareness, build capacity and generate knowledge on the relevance of SPP to policy makers. Ultimately, this handbook is an effort to make public procurement a catalyst for inclusive green growth.

This handbook will guide government procurers on the design of procurement policies and preferential purchasing programs that will crowd-in SMEs, minority suppliers and women-owned enterprises. It will integrate environmental and social criteria across the public procurement cycle, from supplier qualification to technical specifications, award criteria and contract conditions.

Las Compras Públicas Sostenibles (CPS) buscan asegurar que
los productos y servicios adquiridos por los gobiernos sean lo mas sostenibles posibles, tanto para generar el menor impacto ambiental, así como para también producir el mejor impacto social. Al rediseñar políticas y procedimientos, los gobiernos pueden crean beneficios multiplicadores a nivel interno y en toda la sociedad que incrementen eficiencias, generen ahorros de energía y financieros, mejoren el acceso a servicios públicos y creen mejores condiciones de trabajo. Las CPS sirven como un promotor clave de políticas que permiten
 a los gobiernos reformar los mercados a través de su poder de compra y la influencia de su regulación.

Este manual es una herramienta para la implementación de CPS en América Latina y el Caribe (ALC), desarrollado en colaboración con la Red Interamericana de Compras Gubernamentales (RICG). La RICG reúne a las más alta autoridades técnicas de compras públicas de 34 países de las Américas. Durante los últimos años, la RICG ha trabajado para sensibilizar, desarrollar capacidades y generar conocimiento sobre la relevancia de las CPS en los responsables de políticas públicas. En última instancia, este manual es un esfuerzo para que las compras públicas se conviertan en un catalizador para el crecimiento verde inclusivo.

Este manual guiará a los agentes de compras gubernamentales también en el diseño de políticas de compras y programas de compras preferenciales que incluyan a PYMEs, grupos minoritarios y empresas de propiedad de mujeres, entre otros. Integra criterios ambientales y sociales en todo el ciclo de la contratación pública, desde la calificación de proveedores a las especificaciones técnicas, criterios de adjudicación y las condiciones del contrato.

Jointly prepared by IISD, OCI and ODI, this country study and accompanying data sheet compiles publicly available information on fossil fuel production subsidies in Turkey in 2013 and 2014.

It is a background paper to the report Empty promises: G20 subsidies to oil, gas and coal production and provides a baseline to track progress on the phase-out of such subsidies as part of a wider global energy transition.

To download Turkish language PDF from ODI click here.

To download the related Turkey Excel information from ODI click here.

Water, energy and food (WEF) security constitutes critical components of human well-being and includes aspects of supply, demand and access to all three.

It is crucial to ensure that people have sustained access to good quality and affordable energy, water and food. Large-scale development efforts such as mining, agriculture or industrial development affect WEF security both positively and negatively. These developments are often driven by a need for more reliable food, energy or water or their components and can provide significant opportunities to improve WEF. On the other hand, focusing on enhancing one of these aspects may mean that such development causes unintended long-term consequences for other critical components of regional well-being. It is for this reason that IISD has been focusing on integrating WEF security into development decisions.

IISD adapted a WEF security for the agricultural context to look at these interlinked securities in the context of mining and applied this framework and a resulting tool in the context of mining in Suriname. This report provides an overview of this initiative, including the following four tasks:

• Task 1 – WEF and mining review, including a comprehensive literature review
• Task 2 – WEFsat-Mining tool development and status assessment
• Task 3 – Hydrologic Assessment Guidance for monitoring and reporting on water related to mining.
• Task 4 – Capacity building and training including two regional workshops on WEF security

Finally, the report provides some guidance for investment and targeting for improved WEF security in the context of mining in Suriname. These include improved monitoring and indicator systems including hydrologic monitoring systems, improving procurement policies on mine sites, and investment in renewable energy systems and transportation sub-nationally and nationally.

Water, energy and food (WEF) security are interlinked and co-dependent components of security and ranked by the World Economic forum as a key global risk.

As attention to WEF security has grown, so has a need for practical means of implementing this complex, interlinked problem. The WEF security analysis tool (WEFsat-Mining) was developed as part of a multi-year initiative to operationalize a framework and implementation plan to assess WEF security, understand the impacts and implications of mining, and provide guidance to decision-makers on how to optimize across different priorities, including economic, social and environmental.

This manual briefly explains IISD’s WEF security framework. Informed by a comprehensive literature review, this framework enables a place-based analysis of four main components that focus the obvious and underlying factors affecting a community’s ability to be WEF secure: access, availability, supporting resources and supporting policies, and each in the context of a region’s water, energy and food supply. The WEFsat-Mining tool seeks to facilitate the operationalization of this framework in the context of mining with a focus on understanding and managing the benefits and impacts of mining on community-level WEF security. This guidance manual then walks the reader through a series of steps included in the WEFsat-Mining tool, including its 10 MS-Excel worksheets. These are: #1 Community profile; #2 WEF inventory base; #3 WEF Status base; #4 WEF diagram base; #5 Mine profile; #6 WEF inventory- mine; #7 WEF influence- mine; #8 WEF mine-composite; #9 WEF mine diagram; and #10 Executive Summary. 

Water, energy and food (WEF) security are interlinked and co-dependent components of security and ranked by the World Economic forum as a key global risk.

As attention to WEF security has grown, so has a need for practical means of implementing this complex, interlinked problem. The WEF security analysis tool (WEFsat-Mining) was developed as part of a multi-year initiative to operationalize a framework and implementation plan to assess WEF security, understand the impacts and implications of mining, and provide guidance to decision-makers on how to optimize across different priorities, including economic, social and environmental.

This manual briefly explains IISD’s WEF security framework. Informed by a comprehensive literature review, this framework enables a place-based analysis of four main components that focus the obvious and underlying factors affecting a community’s ability to be WEF secure: access, availability, supporting resources and supporting policies, and each in the context of a region’s water, energy and food supply. The WEFsat-Mining tool seeks to facilitate the operationalization of this framework in the context of mining with a focus on understanding and managing the benefits and impacts of mining on community-level WEF security. This guidance manual then walks the reader through a series of steps included in the WEFsat-Mining tool, including its 10 MS-Excel worksheets. These are: #1 Community profile; #2 WEF inventory base; #3 WEF Status base; #4 WEF diagram base; #5 Mine profile; #6 WEF inventory- mine; #7 WEF influence- mine; #8 WEF mine-composite; #9 WEF mine diagram; and #10 Executive Summary. 

The year 2015 is crucial in the fight against climate change.

From November 30 to December 11, representatives of 196 countries will meet in Paris to develop a new international climate change agreement. This meeting, the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is particularly important because parties are expected to adopt an agreement that will lay the foundation for climate policy for decades to come. In advance of this conference, most countries have submitted targets for reducing or stabilizing their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions towards the collective goal of limiting the increase in global average temperatures to 2°C above pre-industrial levels. Countries will also address issues of adaptation, loss and damage, financing, technology transfer and capacity building in developing countries.

This briefing note first offers a historical overview of understanding the climate change problem and putting in place a forum, the UNFCCC, to collectively address it. It then turns its focus towards providing a hands-on understanding of the means through which countries submitted GHG reduction and stabilization targets in 2015 ahead of the Paris Conference through their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions. It explores the various legal options suggested to the countries for the adoption of a Paris Agreement, before it addresses specific issues of adaptation, loss and damage, and climate finance. The note then briefly explores expected outcomes for COP 21.

L’année 2015 est cruciale pour la lutte contre les changements climatiques, alors qu’en décembre les représentants de 196 pays se réuniront à Paris dans le but d’adopter un nouvel accord international sur les changements climatiques. Cette rencontre, la 21^e session de la Conférence des Parties (CdP 21) à la Convention-cadre des Nations unies sur les changements climatiques (CCNUCC) vise à adopter un accord qui posera les jalons des politiques climatiques pour les décennies à venir. En vue de cette conférence, la majorité des pays ont soumis des cibles de réduction ou de stabilisation de leurs émissions de gaz à effet de serre (GES), qui collectivement visent à limiter la hausse des températures mondiales moyennes à moins de 2 °C, comparativement aux niveaux préindustriels.

Cette note d’information débute par un aperçu historique de la compréhension des changements climatiques comme enjeu et la formation d’un forum, la CCNUCC, qui vise à le combattre collectivement. Les contributions prévues déterminées au niveau national (CPDN), outil à travers lequel les pays ont soumis au cours de l’année 2015 des cibles de réduction et de stabilisation de leurs émissions de GES sont ensuite abordées. Enfin, cette note aborde les formes juridiques d’un accord de Paris qui sont actuellement suggérées aux pays, avant d’analyser d’autres enjeux précis au cœurs des négociations climatiques tels que l’adaptation, la finance climat et les pertes et préjudices. Une brève analyse des résultats escomptés lors de la CdP 21 conclut cette note d’information.

Jointly prepared by IISD, OCI and ODI, this country study and accompanying data sheet compiles publicly available information on fossil fuel production subsidies in South Africa in 2013 and 2014.

It is a background paper to the report Empty promises: G20 subsidies to oil, gas and coal production and provides a baseline to track progress on the phase-out of such subsidies as part of a wider global energy transition.

To download the related Sourth Africa Excel information click here.