Celebrating South Africa's sustainability
A recent report confirms that efforts to achieve sustainability through the sustainable development goals (SDG) are already off the mark and most have either stagnated or regressed since the Covid-19 pandemic.
While the average SDG progress in Brics countries has been above the world average, the gap between rich and poor countries continues to widen. This requires innovative and transformative models for natural resources management, global finance and partnerships.
The grand challenges facing humankind today revolve around water, energy and food. This is based on the fact that the three are central to sustainable development as they are vital for socio-ecological, socio-economic, human and environmental well-being. They are central to climate change adaptation and mitigation as they link the climate system, natural resources, people and the planet. How the three resources are used and managed is, therefore, central to either the aggravation of climate change or the enhancement of resilience and adaptation strategies, making the three both victims and culprits of climate change.
The increasing complexities of today’s interlinked grand challenges, including climate change, resource insecurities, the emergence of novel infectious diseases and socio-economic and environmental degradation, require systemic approaches, such as the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus, that balance trade-offs, enhance synergies, mitigate resource depletion and promote waste reduction while operating within the planetary boundaries.
Such approaches can facilitate a transition from linear economic models to more circular and inclusive models and a just energy transition. The deteriorating insecurity of WEF resources and the slowness to take decisive measures to halt greenhouse gas emissions and arrest climate change derail the ambition to achieve the 2030 global agenda on sustainable development and the Paris Accords.
Today’s age, dubbed the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), depends on sophisticated, cross-cutting, cross-sectoral and interconnected systems to deliver goods and services conveniently. However, it is prone to huge global disruptions, as evidenced during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Transitioning to a transformative and circular economy catalyses transformational change towards greater sustainability, resilience and equity and delivers on human health, well-being and environmental outcomes.
The WEF nexus fits this dimension as it recognises the interlinkages between socio-economic and socio-ecological systems and how their systemic properties shape their interactions, interdependencies and interrelationships. An added advantage of the WEF nexus is that it integrates, simplifies and facilitates integrated interventions to reduce risk and vulnerability, forming an integral part of sustainable development.
Given the stagnating and regressing progress towards the sustainable development goals, our efforts to achieve sustainable development must evolve, be more inclusive, cross-cut and accelerate progress. Continuing to pursue sector-based linear policies can only aggravate the challenges and lead to further stagnation in advancing international and national developmental frameworks such as the SDGs and the National Development Plan.
The intricate interlinkages between the WEF sectors and their links to socio-economic and socio-ecological rights provide an entry point for transformative and cross-sectoral interventions through the WEF nexus.
For example, global water demand has already doubled at the population growth rate, yet almost 30% still lack access to safe water. By 2030, 40% of the global population will suffer severe water stress. This imbalance is projected to result in almost 700 million people displaced by intense water scarcity. Water demand is expected to increase by nearly 55% by 2050, further exacerbating the insecurity of the already depleted and degraded resource.
Similarly, food-insecure people grew from 785 million in 2015 to 822 million in 2018, when food production became more water- and energy-intensive. Agricultural mechanisation, intensification and the increased use of agro-chemicals on expanded irrigated land have increased water and energy use in agriculture. As a result, over 30% of the global energy and more than 70% of the available freshwater resources are used in the agriculture value chain.
While nearly a billion people do not have access to electricity, global energy demand is projected to increase by 25% by 2040, compounding energy insecurity. As the food system is under pressure to meet the growing demand for food from an increasing population, there is also urgent pressure to reduce water and energy use and free up water and energy for other uses and users. If not well managed, these challenges risk derailing sustainable development.
Thus, there is an urgent need for policy- and decision-makers to consider the broad relations between the WEF sectors in developmental plans and resource management. This will guide the sustainable transition to a transformative and circular economy that promotes the holistic management of the three interlinked sectors and accelerate progress to achieve the SDGs.
Some of the key actions needed to achieve the transformational agenda include reducing the huge gap between science and policy and policy and implementation of novel technologies and innovations; innovative financing models to support research and implementation; promoting partnerships and collaboration; promoting local solutions to global challenges; leveraging digital technologies and 4IR technologies and promoting capacity development.
Transformative approaches, such as the WEF nexus, scenario planning, planetary health and just transition can assist in holistically addressing the current cross-cutting challenges and catalyse sustainable development.
In his inaugural speech, President Cyril Ramaphosa emphasised that South Africans “want a transformed, growing and inclusive economy that creates jobs for millions of job seekers and offers business opportunities to all entrepreneurs in our nation — women and men, young and old” and committed to “a social compact to realise the aspirations of our National Development Plan”.
Against this call, the Water Research Commission, in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; IHE-Delft; the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health; the Institute for Natural Resources; the University of KwaZulu-Natal; SADC WaterNet; the departments of water and sanitation and of agriculture, land reform and rural development and the Global Water Partnership Southern Africa, under the auspices of the Global WEF Nexus Community of Practice, will be convening a WEF Nexus Regional Summit on 19 and 20 August 2024 to deliberate on operationalising the WEF nexus and accelerating progress towards achieving the SDGs with a focus on southern Africa.
Dr Luxon Nhamo and Professor Sylvester Mpandeli work for the Water Research Commission and Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi is a climate change professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.