City climate action plans through the lens of the food-energy-water nexus

Abstract The concepts of interdependent resource management have roots in the mid-20th century, and, more recently, the term ‘nexus’ has been used to describe the interconnected relationships among various resources, including food, energy, water, climate, and land. United States and European science foundations have shown a growing interest in the food-energy-water (FEW) nexus, leading to increased research on their joint management. Concurrently, in response to the looming threats of climate change, many cities in the United States have addressed climate governance by developing climate action plans (CAPs) for both mitigation and adaptation. However, one major criticism of the FEW nexus is the limited translation of the research into practical policies and implementation, such as CAPs. To assess the incorporation of FEW nexus principles into climate planning, we systematically evaluate 100 CAPs from large United States cities (population over 100 000). We identified primary themes and objectives for each resource, examining explicit or implicit connections within the CAPs. Our findings show that the energy sector is a central focus in nearly every CAP (98%), followed by water (75%), and food (66%). Within the food sector, we observed a significant emphasis on food waste reduction and composting (about 80%) compared to other food-related topics. Among water-related matters, drinking water receives the most attention, compared to wastewater and stormwater. Notably, the most discussed food-energy-water (FEW) links are those that involve energy, particularly the water-for-energy and food-for-energy connections, found in over half of the documents (56%). Our analysis promotes the integration of the FEW nexus into CAPs while discussing the barriers to its effective implementation.