Food, energy, and water nexus: A study on interconnectedness and trade-offs

Abstract

This study finds interesting outcomes regarding the interlinkage between the food, energy, and water sectors. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization data from January 1961 till January 2023 are employed for six variables, namely Total Renewable Water resources per capita (TRW), Total Internal Renewable Water resources per capita (TIRW), Total Water Withdrawal per capita (TWW), Global Food Consumption per capita (GFC), Global Crop Production (GCP), and Global Electricity Consumption (GEC). Employing Quantile Vector Auto-Regression (QVAR) methodology, we observe asymmetry in connectedness across quantiles. Positive shocks produce stronger impacts in the variables than negative ones. Crop production mostly acts as a receiver of shocks. Renewable water is a consistent net emitter in all circumstances, while water withdrawal is crucial during negative shocks regime as well as in neutral time.