Saudi Arabia has officially been elected as President of the sixteenth Conference of the Parties of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP16). The recognition of the Presidency took place during the opening plenary session of COP16 in Riyadh, beginning a two-year tenure to drive international action on land restoration and drought resilience.
Policymakers, international organisations, businesses, NGOs and key stakeholders are in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to seek urgent international solutions to the pressing global crises of land degradation, drought and desertification.
During the official opening of the conference, Abdulrahman Abdulmohsen AlFadley, UNCCD COP16 President and Saudi Arabia Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture, welcomed attendees. In his opening remarks, he urged the international community to deliver decisive action as the UNCCD targets the restoration of 1.5 billion hectares of land by 2030.
“Saudi Arabia looks forward to intensifying international efforts at UNCCD COP16 to address major environmental challenges”, said Minister AlFadley, “and enhance integration with other international environmental agreements, including the Rio Conventions on climate change and biodiversity, all to achieve ambitious outcomes that make a qualitative leap in land conservation, reduce land degradation and build a global capacity to combat drought.”
“More than 100 million hectares of land is degraded every year, impacting over 3 billion people and leading to more than $6 trillion of lost ecosystem services, whilst driving food and water insecurity. This COP will be a historic moment to limit land deflation and drought around the world.”
The UNCCD issued a new report in collaboration with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research, highlighting the growing emergency caused by land degradation. Key findings outlined the damage being caused by unsustainable agricultural practices, with agriculture accounting for 80 per cent of deforestation and 70 per cent of fresh water use, whilst 23 per cent of greenhouse has emissions stem from agriculture, forestry and land use. According to the report, 46 per cent of the global land area is classified as drylands.
Running from the 2nd to the 13th December, COP16 in Riyadh is the largest-ever UNCCD COP, for the first time featuring a Green Zone to mobilise multilateral action and help drive funding for land restoration initiatives. Bolstering global drought resilience is a focal point of COP16, and the Riyadh Global Draught Resilience Partnership will help synergise and amplify international action on drought resilience and sift global response from one of reactive crises management to proactive prevention.
The Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership was launched during the COP16 opening ceremony, and received pledges of $1 billion from the OPEC Fund, and $1 billion from the Islamic Development Bank. This comes in addition to the $150 million already pledged by Saudi Arabia to fund the initiative. The launch of the International Drought Resilience Observatory and Global Drought Atlas will help increase monitoring, prevention and awareness of drought around the world.
“I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its vision and leadership in elevating the global land restoration and drought resilience agenda”, said Ibrahim Thiaw, UNCCD Executive Secretary, “whether through the G20, hosting this landmark COP and building its legacy, the Saudi Green Initiative, or most recently, the Middle East Green Initiative.”