Regulating the water-energy-food nexus: Interdependencies, transaction costs and procedural justice

• Main Authors: LARCOM, Shaun, VAN GEVELT, Terry
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2017
• Subjects: Environmental regulation; Environmental justice; Water-energy-food nexus; Renewable energy; Environmental Sciences; Urban Studies and Planning
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cis_research/54; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/cis_research/article/1053/viewcontent/1_s2.0_S1462901117300540_main.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

There have been calls for an overhaul of regulatory and governance frameworks to incorporate the implications of the water-energy-food nexus. We map one small component of the regulatory space of the nexus and highlight its immense complexity. We draw on insights from the economics and socio-legal literatures to show that a decentralised approach to regulation based upon procedural justice can enable the trade-offs of the nexus to be considered and addressed. We use a nexus case study of micro hydro-electricity generation in Dartmoor National Park in England to show that when we take into account interactions between state and non-state regulation, the economic concepts of interdependencies and transaction costs, and a recognition that regulation of the nexus is a process involving decisions of procedural justice, some existing regulatory frameworks are already well-equipped to deal with the implications of nexus analysis.