Future Global Water, Food and Energy Needs

If present trends continue, it is unlikely that increasingly overused ecosystems subject to deterioration and depletion will be able to meet global water, food and energy needs. Current academic thinking is that scarcity, pollution, mismanagement and misallocation of natural resources will impact every sector on which humankind depends for survival. In a globalized economy with increasingly free movement of commodities and financial and human capital, a poor understanding of the most pressing issues and their interconnectedness and interdependences will cause irreparable damage to the Earth and its billions of people: a clear case of fait accompli. This is a challenging context for global development, and to understand and manage the interdependencies between the various sectors and their global impact will require comprehensive planning and policy implementation, institutional resilience, partnerships across economic sectors, and innovation in development in order to sustainably manage resources in the wake of population growth and climate change.