Brazil: the food, water, energy nexus

As the interdependencies between energy, food and water increase in complexity and the stakes become ever higher in terms of environmental protection and food security, so the concept of the ‘nexus’ grows in importance.

Some countries such as Brazil are particularly sensitive to the Food-Water-Energy nexus because they provide food to many other parts of the world, yet suffer constraints in both water supplies and available land – without prompting deforestation.

BRIDGE project

Cambridge Econometrics (CE) is a key partner in an international project – BRIDGE (Building Resilience In a Dynamic Global Economy) – aimed at supporting researchers in the modelling, understanding and governance of the Food-Water-Energy Nexus in Brazil.

Understanding the complex, interrelated ‘trade offs’ between environmental, agricultural and trade policies, for example, those related to food prices and biofuels, is critical to ensuring the country’s resilience to global environmental and economic change.

Building local analytical capacity

As part of the project, CE will help develop state-of-the-art analytical capacity in socio-economic and environmental policy modelling. The skills and knowledge needed to undertake this analysis will be transferred to local Brazilian academics to continue informing and engaging policymakers during and beyond the end of this project.

The project is funded by the Newton Fund, a collaboration between UK and Brazil Research Councils: the ESRC and FAPESC.

Consortium members include: Radboud University, The Netherlands, UNISUL, University of Southern Santa Catarina, Brazil, The University of Cambridge, The Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance and The Open University.

To find out more about our work related to food, energy and water, please contact Hector Pollitt.