THE ENERGY/WATER/FOOD NEXUS —AN INTRODUCTION

Abstract

The relationship between energy, water, and food is at once both obvious and complex. The global energy-water-food nexus recognises that, in natural resource policy, no effort aimed at conservation, sustainability, or environmental protection will come without some unintended consequences. This article provides an overview of the energy-water-food nexus and introduces a special issue comprising articles from leading legal scholars that discuss the challenges and opportunities surrounding the intersection of laws governing energy, water, food, and climate change. It summarises these articles and draws out some generalisable lessons on the following three questions: (1) What are some of the current energy-water-food nexus problems and what types of law and governance approaches have been used to tackle them? (2) What law and governance mechanisms might be needed to better govern nexus challenges? (3) What are the implications of the nexus for future law and governance re-search?