EU To Push For Increased Global Cooperation On Desertification, Land Degradation And Drought At UNCCD COP16

(MENAFN- Asdaf News) Riyadh – Asdaf News:

At the sixteenth conference of the Parties to the UN convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP16) on 2 – 13 December in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the EU will work with international partners to deliver on global commitments to tackle desertification, land degradation and drought. Desertification, land degradation and droughts are global challenges that require urgent action and scaling up of viable solutions. Exacerbated by climate change, they aggravate economic, social and environmental problems including poverty, food security, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, migration and forced displacement. Action to combat droughts and land degradation, including improving water resilience will help secure the EU's strategic autonomy, competitiveness and security.

In the margins of the Conference, the high-level One Water Summit will take place on 3 December. It will act as an incubator for concrete solutions to enhance global water governance and accelerate action on Sustainable Development Goal 6 on water and sanitation, in preparation for the next UN Water Conference in 2026.

The EU will be represented at UNCCD COP16 by Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience, and a Competitive Circular Economy Jessika Roswall. She said:

At UNCCD COP16 the EU will push to strengthen synergies between the 3 Rio Convention COPs (climate, biodiversity, desertification) as outlined in Council conclusions, by increasing awareness on the interlinkages between all challenges and concrete actions, including nature-based solutions, that lead to viable, integrated solutions. The EU will work together with partners to find viable solutions to address drought for all parties. The EU supports shifting from a reactive and crisis-based approach to a proactive approach to drought management. The EU is also pushing to increase the involvement of civil society organizations and the private sector in all UNCCD processes and implementation, increase gender-balance in the UNCCD, and enhance gender-responsive approaches for implementing policies. The EU supports the strengthening of the implementation of the UNCCD for the current implementation framework and beyond, after 2030. It is also important for the EU that Parties agree on a solid budget to be allocated to the Convention secretariat to implement the decisions of the Parties at the COP.

The European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the UNCCD have been working together on the World Drought Atlas, which will be released at COP16. The Atlas assesses current and future drought risks at global level and recommends actions to build drought resilience and fight water scarcity. The UNCCD will also launch an Economics of Drought Report, highlighting the economic benefits of acting on drought prevention, and the costs of inaction.

Background
Land degradation is a cross-cutting challenge, compromising food production, with negative effects for the economy, society, climate and the environment. Joint and coherent solutions to the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution for land are important, including upscaling nature-based solutions and ecosystem-based approaches.

It is a priority for the EU to accelerate global action to address the water crisis, driven by overdemand, mismanagement and the impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. Global freshwater demand is predicted to exceed supply by a staggering 40% by 2030. Water resilience is also key to prevent and address the current and future health, food and energy crises. In her political guidelines for the next College 2024-2029 President von der Leyen announced the development of an EU Water Resilience Strategy to ensure sources are properly managed, scarcity is addressed, and that we enhance the competitive innovative edge of our water industry and take a circular economy approach.

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