United Nations World Water Development Report 2014: Water and Energy, Volume 1

  Available online: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002257/225741E.pdf

This report provides an overview of major and emerging trends from around the world, with examples of how some of the trend-related challenges have been addressed, their implications for policy-makers, and further actions that can be taken by stakeholders and the international community. It argues that water and energy are closely interconnected and highly interdependent. Choices made and actions taken in one domain can greatly affect the other, positively or negatively. Trade-offs need to be managed to limit negative impacts and foster opportunities for synergy. The argument is given that water and energy have crucial impacts on poverty alleviation both directly, as a number of the Millennium Development Goals depend on major improvements in access to water, sanitation, power and energy sources, and indirectly, as water and energy can be binding constraints on economic growth – which is presented as the ultimate hope for widespread poverty reduction.Climate change is a subject which comes up throughout the report including specific foci on climate and natural disasters and the effects of water scarcity.

Language(s): English

Tags: Climate change ; Water ; Poverty and Poverty reduction Add tag