The challenges related to water-, energy- and food security under conditions of global environmental change and by achieving or maintaining sustainable development paths are complex ones as well as highly interrelated. This is one of the reasons, why these issues are increasingly considered jointly and holistically and are collectively addressed under the topic of the Water-Energy-Food-Nexus (W-E-F-Nexus). Many of the processes and characteristics inherent in the W-E-F-Nexus are primarily pronounced in the MENA Region[1], a region expected to be particularly affected by anticipated changes in climate conditions.
The upcoming Symposium on Eco-Innovation for the Water-Energy-Food Nexus (http://www.inno4sd.net/News/Next-Symposium-To-Take-Place-In-Cyprus-In-November.kl) is addressing innovative strategies and solution to reduce adverse effects of climate change on the W-E-F-Nexus in the MENA Region. The Symposium, which will take place at the Cyprus Institute, in Nicosia, Cyprus on November 17 to 18, 2016, is jointly organized by the EU-project inno4SD.net (The Global Network of Networks About Innovation for Sustainable Development; http://www.inno4sd.net/), Future Earth (FE) and the FE MENA Regional Center at the Cyprus Institute in Nicosia, Cyprus (FEMRC; http://fe-mena.cyi.ac.cy/index.php).
The Symposium will bring together scientists from Europe and the MENA Region in order to discuss common as well as complementary strategies and approaches to eco-innovations on three different overarching themes:
(1)The Nexus and Smart City Development;
(2)Addressing Nexus Challenges in the MENA Region;
(3)Eco-Innovation for Better Access to Water, Energy and Food;
to explore underlying reasons and rationales for successful examples of specific local to regional case studies. The second theme will be led by Manfred Lange, the Director of the Global Land Project’s (GLP) Regional MENA Node (GLP-RMN) and will comprise topics and case studies of high relevance to the Global Land Project.
The results of these discussions will be utilized to extract “lessons learned” that may be applied in future challenging cases that deal with global changes and their impacts on the Water-Energy-Food Nexus in the MENA Region.
[1] MENA (Middle East and North Africa), describes the region extending from Morocco to Iran, including all Middle Eastern and Maghreb countries, as well as Cyprus, the countries of the Arabian Peninsula, Israel, Greece and Turkey