COP16’s pledges and ongoing challenges

After two weeks of negotiations on how to tackle land degradation, desertification and drought, the United Nations land conference wrapped up in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in December 2024.

The nearly 200 countries convening at the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) committed to prioritise land restoration and drought resilience in national policies and international cooperation as an essential strategy for food security and climate adaptation. Nations also made significant progress in laying the groundwork for a future global drought regime, which they intend to complete at COP17 in Mongolia in 2026. In the meantime, more than US 12 billion dollars was pledged to tackle desertification, land degradation and drought around the world, especially in the most vulnerable countries.

Among the main agreements reached at COP16 were the creation of a Caucus for Indigenous Peoples and a Caucus for Local Communities to ensure that their unique perspectives and challenges are adequately represented, a continuation of the Convention’s Science-Policy Interface to strengthen science-based decision-making and the mobilisation of private sector engagement under the Business4Land initiative.

During the Conference, participants heard that UNCCD estimates that at least USD 2.6 trillion in total investments is needed by 2030 to restore more than one billion hectares of degraded land and build resilience to drought. This equals USD 1 billion in daily investments between now and 2030 to meet global land restoration targets and combat desertification and drought.

New pledges for large-scale land restoration and drought preparedness were announced, such as the Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership which attracted USD 12.15 billion to support 80 of the world’s most vulnerable countries in building their resilience to drought, including a USD 10 billion pledge from the Arab Coordination Group.

The Great Green Wall (GGW), an African-led initiative to restore 100 million hectares of degraded land, also mobilised EUR 11 million from the Italian Government for landscape restoration in the Sahel and 3.6 million euros from the Austrian Government to strengthen the coordination and implementation of the initiative across 22 African countries. The drive is part of the GGW Accelerator, a UNCCD-supported effort to achieve the ambitions for a greener, more prosperous Sahel.

Additionally, the USA and several partner countries and organisations announced total investments of nearly USD 70 million to advance the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS). The initiative looks to build resilient food systems grounded in diverse, nutritious and climate-adapted crops grown in healthy soils.

The first-ever UNCCD COP in the Middle East and North Africa provided an opportunity to shine a light on the specific challenges facing the region and bring to the fore innovative solutions to land degradation and drought.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced five new projects valued at USD 60 million to ramp up climate and environmental efforts as part of the Saudi Green Initiative. The UNCCD COP16 Presidency also announced the launch of an international sand and dust storm monitoring initiative. This effort, part of a regional early warning system, aims to complement existing efforts overseen by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The International Drought Resilience Observatory (IDRO) is the first global AI-driven platform to help countries assess, and enhance, their capacity to cope with harsher droughts. This innovative tool is an initiative of the International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA), which Saudi Arabia joined earlier this year. 

(UNCCD/ile)

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