27 August 2012: The Mekong River Commission (MRC) has published the outcome of a meeting that was titled “Mekong2Rio” and convened in advance of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20) to address the water, energy and food security nexus.

The report, titled “Transboundary River Basin Management: Addressing Water, Energy and Food Security,” provides a background on transboundary basin management and the green economy. It discusses: transboundary nexus perspectives – moving towards a greener economy; investing in natural capital and benefiting from productive ecosystems; poverty reduction through development and access to resources; creating policy coherence across the nexus; the science-policy dialogue and sharing of data and information; involvement of stakeholders in management of shared river basins; and international institutions and their role in management of shared natural resources.

Cross-cutting issues addressed by the report include increased water demand due to population increases and the impacts of climate change and biodiversity conservation. It provides an overview of the outcomes of Mekong2Rio conference, held from 1-3 May 2012, in Phuket, Thailand, including calls for: adopting transboundary nexus approach to promote transboundary cooperation; addressing trade-offs between water, energy and food security at the basin level; and changing the economic paradigm to include protection of natural capital. [Publication: Transboundary River Basin Management: Addressing Water, Energy and Food Security]