Saudi Arabia is hosting a UN conference on desertification and land degradation on Monday, after experts raised the alarm about the serious consequences of deforestation and intensive agriculture for the planet.
The 16th meeting of the parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), scheduled for December 2 to 13 in Riyadh, was presented by the head of the UN, Antonio Guterres, as a “decisive moment” in the fight against drought and the encroachment of deserts.
The last conference, which was held in 2022 in Ivory Coast, resulted in a commitment to “accelerate the restoration of a billion hectares of degraded land”, i.e. soil damaged by human activities such as pollution. or deforestation, by 2030. But the UNCCD, which brings together 196 countries and the European Union, now estimates that 1.5 billion hectares should be restored before the end of the decade, a colossal challenge on a global scale. The day before COP16 talks open in Saudi Arabia, home to one of the world’s largest deserts, a new report published by scientists and the UNCCD has highlighted the heavy burden that agriculture poses on the planet.
“We are on the edge of a precipice and must decide whether to step back and take transformative measures or continue on a path of irreversible environmental change,” emphasize Ibrahim Thiaw, executive secretary of the UNCCD, and Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Climate Research Institute, in the preface to the report.
During COP29 in Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, the world’s main oil exporter, was accused of having prevented the mention of fossil fuels in the final agreement. If the Gulf kingdom is criticized for the emissions generated by its immense oil production, its vulnerability to desertification could give it more credibility in negotiations in Riyadh.
Accelerate the restoration of degraded lands
“We are exposed to the most severe form of land degradation, desertification,” Saudi Deputy Environment Minister Osama Faqeeha told AFP. “Our lands are arid. Our precipitation is very low. This has been our reality for centuries,” added the Saudi official.
The country has set itself the objective of restoring 40 million hectares, said the Saudi minister, without giving a timetable. The Gulf kingdom has so far restored 240,000 hectares, in particular by fighting against the illegal felling of trees and by increasing the number of national parks, the number of which increased from 19 in 2016 to more than 500, he said. Other methods to restore land include planting trees, crop rotation and pasture management.
At COP16 desertification, the challenge is to reach a consensus on the need to accelerate the restoration of degraded lands and to develop a “proactive” approach to droughts, Ibrahim Thiaw explained to AFP. “We have already lost 40% of our land and soil” and this loss has consequences on food insecurity and migration, continues the executive secretary of the UNCCD.
“Global security is really at stake (…) not just in Africa and the Middle East,” insisted Ibrahim Thiaw, while Osama Faqeeha warned: “If we continue to let the land degrade, we will suffer huge losses.
Great expectations after a mixed climate COP
Thousands of delegates, including nearly 100 ministers, are expected at COP16, according to executive secretary of the UNCCD. The conference begins a few days after the close of COP29 in Baku on a promise from rich countries to pay $300 billion by 2035 to the least developed countries for climate financing. An amount deemed insufficient by poor states, which are also the most vulnerable to climate change.
Matthew Archer, assistant professor at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, expressed skepticism towards discussions of desertification. According to him, they are part of the “masquerade of the COPs, totally incapable of generating adequate political action in the face of the current socio-ecological crises”. “I don’t expect COP16 to offer a viable solution to desertification,” he told AFP.
Sami Nemli with agencies / Les Inspirations ECO
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