Meeting human aspirations in an increasingly resource limited world and in the perspective of a changing climate, requires that resources are used prudently and equitably. Many low income countries are currently undergoing rapid economic development commonly fuelled by two processes: agricultural transformation and energy transitions, which in combination with population growth, changing consumption patterns, and climate change, result in additional pressures manifested in resource degradation.
Sustainable energy transition entails shifting away from traditional biomass use, while at the same time meeting climate change mitigation targets. Developing modern bioenergy and hydropower are potential options, requiring both water and land. Similarly, sustainable agricultural transformation will require higher energy and water inputs to improve productivity. Upstream water-withdrawals for irrigation may reduce water availability for hydropower generation and ecosystems. At the same time, the agricultural sector will need to adapt to a changing climate in particular focusing on water management to bridge more frequent droughts.
The need for transformation is urgent. Current resources use is inefficient and hampers agricultural productivity, threatens biodiversity and in the long-term restrains economic development. It is clear that these processes are partly synergetic and partly competitive, in terms of both water and land use. This complexity needs to be addressed in dialogue with multi-stakeholder groups and under-pinned by rigorous quantitative assessments of resources demand, availability and the inter-linkages between sectors, to support planning and policy-making processes, and to guide investments in new innovations.

Speaker
Louise Karlberg, Stockholm Environment Insitute, Sweden

Louise Karlberg, PhD, is Head of the Resources and Development Unit at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). She has fifteen years of professional experience from research on environment and development, including five years as a manager. Her main research interests are in the fields or ecohydrology and environmental physics, with a special attention to water flows in terrestrial ecosystems. Water resources interventions in small scale agriculture in the tropics is one of her focus areas. Recently, the quantifications of inter-linkages (nexus) between the agricultur

Introduced by
Isabella Alloisio
Isabella Alloisio is a researcher and policy analyst at Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM), where she is involved in the CLIMIP project, and she is the scientific coordinator and external relations manager at the International Center for Climate Governance (ICCG). She was project manager in the field of energy regulation at the Italian Authority for Energy. She holds a PhD in International Law and Economics from Bocconi University, and she was visiting scholar at the University of California at Berkeley conducting research in the renewable energy field, and PhD researcher at the Centre for Research on Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy (IEFE) at Bocconi University. She has published her Phd thesis on the Policy Drivers of Photovoltaic Industry Growth in California, Germany and Japan. She holds a MA in International Relations from the University of Geneva, and worked in International Organisations, such as the United Nations and the European Parliament.