The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis has published a report on the virtual trade in water, energy and food in East Asia.
The report highlights a mismatch between the region's water-energy-food availability and resource consumption, underscoring countries' limited attention to the environmental impacts of their economic growth strategies.
August 2017: The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) has published a report on virtual trade in water, energy and food in East Asia. The report finds that China’s export strategy is affecting its own food security and degrading its environment.
The report finds that current trade flows are unsustainable from the water-energy-food nexus perspective.
The report, published in the ‘Applied Energy’ scientific journal, observes that global value chains and regional consumer demand have resulted in greater interdependence among East Asian countries, but that current trade flows are unsustainable from the water-energy-food nexus perspective. Consumer demand, especially from Japan’s Kanto and Kinki regions and the Republic of Korea’s Sudokwon region, has resulted in net virtual exports of more than 1.2 billion cubic meters of water from China’s water-scarce Eastern region, and the production of 61.3 million metric tons of greenhouse gases. The authors urge China to consider the trade-offs between economic growth and the environmental burdens created by that growth, including the impacts on domestic water, energy and food systems.
IIASA is an international membership organization for scientific cooperation, founded in 1972 by the US and the former Soviet Union. [Report Webpage] [Publication: The Water-Energy-Food Nexus in East Asia: A tele-connected value chain analysis using inter-regional input-output analysis]