Justifying, extending and applying "nexus" thinking in the quest for sustainable development

Abstract

Much scholarship has emerged in recent years illustrating the benefits of a 'nexus approach' or 'nexus language'. Our purpose in this volume is to extend earlier work on the nexus in four very distinct ways: to extend the existing technical knowledge of the links between the climate, energy and water sectors; to critically explore the range of governance mechanisms available to better account for, and integrate, the climate-energy-water nexus in policy and investment decisions; to identify and explore some of the knock-on consequences of dynamics in the climate-energy-water nexus for other sectors, most notably biodiversity; and to attempt to distill this book's wealth of knowledge so as to identify where important 'win-win' opportunities can be seized in the short term, but also where gaps in our understanding remain and demand attention.