Strengthening the Climate-Nature-Food Nexus : Evidence and Policy Lessons from Asia

This book highlights the interdependencies, trade-offs, and competing demands of climate, nature, and food (C-N-F) constitute a nexus. Managing this nexus ensures the integrity of ecosystem services and sustains natural capital. Before elaborating on the process of nexus, it would come in handy to explain how the terms ‘climate’, ‘nature’, and ‘food’ are used in the present context. ‘Climate’ is mainly used in terms of rainfall and temperature. Extreme events of rainfall and temperatures result in floods and droughts. Here, the terms 'climate' and 'climate change' are used interchangeably as synonyms. ‘Nature’ includes both use values (natural resources) and non-use values (biodiversity), which include soil, water, forests, habitat, biodiversity, etc. While natural resources like soil, water, forests, biodiversity, etc. (use values of nature) impact food production directly, non-use values (preference, existence, esoteric, etc.) impact indirectly. However, non-use values are not considered in the present analysis, as assessing non-use values is more complex than evaluating the use values. ‘Food’ production systems primarily include agriculture, forestry, and water-based production systems (such as marine aquaculture). All three production systems are critically linked to nature and are affected by climate change. 

V. Ratna Reddy is the Director, Livelihoods and Natural Resource Management Institute, Hyderabad, India. An economist by training, with specialization in Environmental economics and Natural Resource Management. He has post-doctoral experience as an Alexander von Humboldt Research fellow at the South Asian Institute, Heidelberg, Germany; visiting fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, UK; Department of Geography, Leeds University, UK and UN University FLORES, Dresden, Germany. Served as a working group member in the preparation of 11th and 12th Plans for Government of India. He has published twelve books and more than 200 research papers in international and Indian Journals.

Dil Rahut is Vice Chair of Research at the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI). He was a Sr. Global Program Manager for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre’s (CIMMYT) socioeconomics and sustainable intensification programs. He also served as chair of the staff committee at CIMMYT. Worked in the Research and Statistics Department of the Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan, WorldFish Centre as senior fellow and Japan chair at the Indian Council for Research in International Economic Relations, chief of research, planning and monitoring, and Visa/Mastercard director at the Bank of Bhutan Ltd, and assistant professor of development economics at South Asian University. He has a Ph.D. in development economics from the University of Bonn’s Center for Development Research, Germany. He has over 260 peer-reviewed publications in Scopus-indexed journals and several books focusing on development issues.

Tetsushi Sonobe is a professor of economics at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), a public policy school in Tokyo, and the president of the Japanese Association for Development Economics (JADE). Previously, he was Dean and CEO of the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), Vice President of GRIPS, and professor at GRIPS and Tokyo Metropolitan University. In 2023, he served as the chairperson of T7, the think-tank engagement group of the G7.

Anurag Krishna Vippala is a Climate Finance Economist at the Livelihoods and Natural Resources Management Institute, his work focuses on analysing the complexities of climate sensitivity and resilience, and the various ways in which climate change impacts livelihoods and development. He had extensive experience in global treasury risk management at a leading global bank. A consultant with the Asian Development Bank Institute, Japan, and the Accion-Fraterna Ecology Centre, India, where he continues to consult on climate change management and adaptation projects. He is an MBA with a major in Finance, and a minor in Data Analytics, which is backed by a technical degree in mechanical engineering. He has published in peer reviewed international journals and edited books.