Page - 165 - in Water, Energy, and Environment - A Primer

Chapter10 Policyconsiderations Thepurposeof thischapter is to focusonpolicy issuesassociated with thewater–energy–environment nexus. At first blush this is more than an imposing task since the provision of water and energy services is essential to all human activities. Providing a policy environment that touches all the necessary bases for successful provision of these services is obviously complicated and inevitably contentious, as policy studies and political history clearly document. So how to proceed? I choose to begin with a definition of ‘policy’: ‘Apolicy is a deliberate system of principles to guide decisions and achieve national outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent…’ (62) For example, as stated byUKPrime Minister TheresaMay on 19 February 2018, it is the policy of the United Kingdom to ‘…have an education system at all levels which serves the needs of every child.’ (63) Policy development in areas related towater, energy, and environment was a primary focus of my career in government, and I draw upon that experience in the discussion that follows. ©2019TheAuthor. This isanOpenAccessbookchapter distributedunder the termsof the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits copying and redistribution for non-commercial purposeswith noderivatives, provided theoriginalwork is properly cited (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). This does not affect the rights licensed or assigned from any third party in this book. The chapter is from the bookWater,Energy, andEnvironment:APrimer, AllanR.Hoffman (Author). doi: 10.2166/9781780409658_0165