Co-Sponsored by: Beijing Energy Network

THIS EVENT IS IN BEIJING, CHINA

Three colliding trends—declining freshwater reserves, uncertain grain supplies, and booming energy demand —are disrupting economies, governments, and environments around the world. Unlike food or energy, we cannot grow or easily produce more water. For three years research teams from the Woodrow Wilson Center and Circle of Blue have been reporting from the United States, China, Australia, India, and the other frontlines of the world’s water-food-energy crisis. In our Choke  Point: China reports we were the first to find that China's northern desert provinces, which supply 70% of the nation's coal and 20% of its grain, would run out of water by the end of this decade if conventional farm and energy production practices did not change. There has been little research of policy focus on coal’s water footprint or the growing energy intensity of China’s water sector from desalinization, water transfers, and waste water treatment.