COP16 to Address Global Land Degradation and Desertification Begins in Saudi Arabia [Video]

Following the recent United Nations biodiversity and climate conferences, the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) began Monday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with the goal of tackling drought, desertification and land degradation.

The UN has found that, in order to restore the planet’s degraded lands and prevent desertification, an investment of at least $2.6 trillion will be needed by 2030.

“We depend on our land for survival. Yet, we treat it like dirt,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in a press release from UNCCD.

The 12-day summit seeks to respond to drought in the face of climate change while protecting and restoring the world’s lands. The most recent previous UNCCD meeting — in 2022 in the Ivory Coast — yielded a promise for “accelerating the restoration of one billion hectares of degraded land by 2030,” reported AFP.