Water, energy and land insecurity in global supply chains

Abstract

National consumption of goods and services is met by domestic production and international trade. As a result, countries and sectors exert pressure on natural resources both within and beyond their national borders. Where this resource demand is imposed matters to the effective management of global resource insecurity. Although instructive, the ‘resource footprint’ of a country or sector – a common yardstick to assess the sustainability of consumption – does not distinguish its origin of production and associated resource risk. As a result, the source and severity of global resource insecurity remains poorly understood. To understand how resource use connects different actors within the global economy, the water, energy and land footprints of 189 countries and 14838 country sectors are analysed by source (domestic, macro-regional and remote) and risk (high, medium and low). Linking national consumption to source reveals countries and sectors are highly exposed, directly (via domestic production) and indirectly (via imports), to over-exploited, insecure, and degraded water, energy, and land resources. However, countries and sectors exhibit greater exposure to resource risks via international trade ( ≈ 80–90%), mainly from remote production sources. Within this context, countries and sectors share the same sources of resource supply and risk, highlighting an opportunity to manage their resource security by intervening in upstream global supply chains. Nevertheless, our findings also invite critical reflection on whether globalisation is compatible with managing risks countries face and drive across the global water-energy-land system.