The Conference of the Parties (COP16) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) began its second and final week of work on Monday, December 9, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with the publication of a shock study. More than three-quarters of the land surface experienced a drier climate during the three decades preceding 2020, compared to the previous thirty years, indicates the document produced under the leadership from CNULCD (« The Global Threat of Drying Lands »). By 2100, up to 5 billion people could live in arid zones, more than double compared to today.
A few days earlier, at the opening of the COP, the UNCCD and the European Commission had published a “World Atlas of Droughts” equally alarming, pointing out the way in which droughts threaten energy, agriculture, river transport or international trade, and can “trigger cascading effects, fueling inequalities and conflicts, and threatening public health”. According to this document, droughts have increased by 29% since the year 2000, due to climate change and unsustainable management of land and water resources. “No country, regardless of its size, GDP or latitude”is not immune, argues the atlas, citing at large the Great Plains, in the United States, the city of Barcelona, in Spain, and the Yangzi River basin, in China.
Faced with this “planetary emergency”the Riyadh summit is an opportunity for States to discuss financial assistance to combat land degradation (including the announcement by Saudi Arabia of a global drought resilience partnership endowed of an initial envelope of 2.15 billion dollars, or 2 billion euros) but also for NGOs and companies to present successfully implemented solutions: early warning systems, microinsurance for small farmers , agroforestry, reuse of wastewater…
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Very often, the key to success lies in the simultaneous mobilization of all stakeholders. “To achieve ambitious objectives, it is necessary to adopt a collective approach including ministries other than that of the environment, but also local authorities, professional agricultural organizations and public agricultural banks”says Sandra Rullière, deputy head of rural development at the French Development Agency (AFD).
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