Against the backdrop of a warming climate and growing population, Southeast Asia faces crucial resource challenges as demand for resources grows. How will this impact our water, energy and food securities, and what can we do to better manage them?
On 15 June 2021, the NUS Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions and The HEAD Foundation co-hosted the first webinar of their joint series, “In the Wake of a Changing Climate”. The webinar, titled “The Resource Challenge in Southeast Asia”, featured three international experts – Director of the Stanford Woods Institute, Professor Chris Field; Associate Professor Katharine Mach of the University of Miami Rosentiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science; and Dr Hezri Adnan, Distinguished Fellow at the Institute of Strategic & International Studies Malaysia. The panellists discussed the complex interconnections of the water, energy and food nexus in Southeast Asia, and the various current and potential solutions. This session was hosted and moderated by Professor Koh Lian Pin, Director of the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions.
As Southeast Asia grows, so does its demand for water, food and energy. Resource security is a central problem for our society’s future well-being, affecting the environment, economies, human health and social inequalities. Despite a rise in local and community-based action, there is a lack of global coordination to address these issues. In the webinar, the panellists discussed using the water-energy-food nexus as an analytical, governance and implementation framework to understand the WEF challenges, contextualise the various trade-offs, and figure out opportunities for innovation to achieve multiple goals. Their message is clear – only with creative, coordinated global efforts can we create a sustainable future for us.
To watch the thought-provoking exchanges among the panellists and their responses to questions from the audience, we invite you to view the full recording of the webinar above.
The HEAD Foundation and NUS CNCS sincerely thank the webinar panellists and attendees from 20 countries including Bangladesh, Brunei, China, HK, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, USA and Singapore for your support and participation.
