World leaders open COP16 on desertification and drought in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

MADRID Dec. 3 (EUROPA PRESS) –

World leaders are meeting from this Monday in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on the occasion of COP16 on desertification and land reclamation, an event sponsored by the United Nations that seeks to promote concrete measures to restore land and increase resilience against droughts.

The Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture of Saudi Arabia, Abdulrahman AlFadley, in charge of chairing this UN-backed summit, has opened the conference by warning that climate change and its impact on degraded lands “will increase levels of migration, stability and insecurity among many communities.

Up to 40 percent of the world’s land is degraded, according to United Nations estimates, reducing its biological and economic productivity and putting “people’s livelihoods” at risk.

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) aims to find solutions to this problem with “detrimental consequences for the climate and biodiversity” and which currently affects some 3.2 billion people around the world, that is, more than a third of the world’s population.

Its executive secretary, Ibrahim Thiaw, has lamented “the increase in food prices, unexpected energy surcharges and the growing tension in their communities” as a result of droughts, an increasingly frequent and serious phenomenon, which has increased 29 percent since 2000.

In fact, according to UN information, these are expected to hit harder to the point that three out of four people will suffer from water shortages by 2050.

“The loss of land and soil is depriving poor families of nutritious food, and children of a secure future,” he denounced, warning that each year one million square kilometers of healthy and productive land are lost.

Finally, Thiaw has defended land management that allows “nurturing humanity itself” and ensures a “future of life on Earth.”

The conference will bring together political leaders, representatives of international organizations, the private sector and members of civil society until December 13 to discuss the possible adoption of objectives to reverse land degradation, increase resilience to droughts and ensure equity for sustainable land management.