Water-Energy-Food Nexus Under Climate Change: Analyzing Different Regional Socio-ecological Contexts in Brazil

Climate change, which has been associated with emerging and even elevated risks on the safety and well-being of societies, has already proved to be a significant challenge in today’s world. Furthermore, a new set of IPCC climate projections reveals that rainfall and high-temperature extremes are expected to exceed the extreme conditions already experienced in Brazil. Such conditions are expressed by several events such as the drought and water crisis in the southeastern region in 2014–2015; drought in the northeast region during 2010–2016; and droughts in Amazonia in 2005, 2010, and 2016 and floods in 2009. These extreme events place several challenges on health, infrastructure, agriculture, biodiversity, and water resources, and therefore with significant environmental and socioeconomic implications. A major focus of this chapter is to provide elements to better inform users – from government, organizations, professionals, and individuals – on how climate change is likely to impact the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus in Brazil. For that purpose, two case studies will be discussed: (i) why a nexus approach to resource management is important for Cerrado and Caatinga biome, Brazil’s largest available stock of land for agricultural expansion and renewable energy production (NEXUS Project), and (ii) we analyzed the Paraíba do Sul river basin, which encloses one of the most developed and industrialized regions in Brazil. The first case refers to the development of analyses on the transformation for sustainability in the Cerrado and Caatinga biomes, considering the construction of scenarios and indicators, built through a participatory approach. The identification and construction of indicators were carried out in a collaborative way with experts using the 2030 Agenda target framework.