Rio+20 Portal

Initiating integrated solutions for the Green Economy

The German Federal Government is organizing the international “Bonn2011 Conference: The Water Energy and Food Security Nexus – Solutions for the Green Economy” to be held from 16 to 18 November. The conference has been announced by German Chancellor Angela Merkel as a specific German contribution to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development “Rio2012”.

Global Trends such as population growth and rising economic prosperity are expected to increase demand for energy, food and water which will compromise the sustainable use of natural resources. Besides positive effects, this pressure on resources could finally result in shortages which may put water, energy and food security for the people at risk, hamper economic development, lead to social and geopolitical tensions and cause lasting irreparable environmental damage.

The German Government has recognized a clear need for new approaches which address the interconnections within the water, energy and food security nexus. In order to develop these integrated solutions, the German Government initiated a yearlong participatory process including an international multi-stakeholder-dialogue to prepare the Bonn2011 Nexus Conference.

By hosting the conference, organized under the auspices of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, the German Government pursues three objectives:

• To develop policy recommendations based on multi-stakeholder consultations and taking a nexus perspective,
• to position the water, energy and food security nexus perspective as an important dimension within the ‘Rio2012’ process as well as the Green Economy and Green Growth concepts, and
• to launch concrete initiatives to address the water, energy, food security nexus in a coherent and sustainable way.

The Bonn2011 Nexus Conference will focus on the three action fields of sustainable development:

• The social dimension: Accelerating Access, integrating the bottom of the pyramid
• The economic dimension: Creating more with less
• The ecologic dimension: Investing to sustain ecosystem services

The conference will put a nexus lens on the three action fields while focusing on better understanding the interlinkages between the three securities. Further, the discussions will focus on identifying enabling conditions which facilitate the transition to a greener economy.

The international participants at this three-day conference will include around 500 high-ranking decision-makers and decision-shapers from the spheres of politics, academia, the United Nations, civil society and the private sector. The overall concept is designed to produce concrete outcomes in plenary sessions, workshops and cross-sectoral dialogue formats. The aim is to arrive at decisions that will make a real difference in terms of sustainable impacts.