New UN figures reveal huge cost of drought and desertification

LONDON: After a year when extreme heat triggered severe droughts from southern Africa to South America, world leaders are meeting in the desert city of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia this month to thrash out ways of tackling desertification and water scarcity.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called the summit - the 16th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP16) - a “moonshot moment” to accelerate action on land and drought resilience as some estimates predicted trillions of dollars would be needed to tackle the problem.

As the talks kicked off, a new report showed global losses from drought cost $307 billion a year.The report, launched on Tuesday by UNCCD and the UN University Institute for Water, Environment, and Health UNU-INWEH, puts the cost much higher than previously believed because earlier calculations mainly focused on agriculture, overlooking the wider consequences on health and energy sectors.

Up to 40 per cent of the world’s land is degraded and droughts are becoming more frequent and severe, increasing by 29 per cent since 2000 due to climate change and unsustainable land management, the UN says. This threatens agriculture, water security, and the livelihoods of 1.8 billion people, with the poorest nations bearing the brunt.

Scientists say drought worsens water and air quality and intensifies sand and dust storms, causing respiratory illnesses and disrupting electricity grids. It can also harm food supplies when rivers dry up or food production becomes impossible because of water shortages.

Ibrahim Thiaw, the executive secretary of the UNCCD, said the summit should promote healthy lands and drought resilience to ensure food and energy security, human development and peace.

He said this COP16 had the largest-ever attendance, including delegates from the private sector and civil society, of any UN land and drought talks to date.“Achieving land and drought goals is also essential to meet the global climate and biodiversity targets,” Thiaw told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview via email.

The Riyadh summit comes after UN talks on biodiversity in Colombia in October and the COP29 summit on climate change in November with the question of who pays to stem the worst effects of climate change taking top billing in all the discussions.

The Riyadh conference aims to accelerate investment and action in drought resilience and land restoration, building on agreements negotiated during the last summit in Ivory Coast in 2022.“Given the urgency of the challenge, the gravity of the impacts, and the unique opportunity before us in Riyadh, I call on all parties to rise their ambition and solidarity for our lands and our future,” Thiaw said.

As the talks began, host and oil producer Saudi Arabia announced the creation of the Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership that will leverage public and private finance to support 80 of the most vulnerable and drought-hit countries around the world.

An initial $2.15 billion has been pledged to the partnership by Saudi Arabia, the Islamic Development Bank and the OPEC Fund for International Development.

NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS

The new UNCCD and UNU-INWEH report said nature-based solutions, including planting trees, managing livestock grazing and creating green spaces in cities, offered cost-effective ways to combat drought.

The research found investment in natural capital -- the world’s natural resources -- offered returns of $1.4 to $27 for every dollar spent within a couple of years.Such investments could include restoring and improving the health of soil so that it can hold more water by, for example, using organic fertilisers and preventing nutrient depletion by rotating crops.

Chile, India, Jordan, Kenya, Spain and Tunisia were among the countries the report said had implemented such measures and most yielded positive results. In these countries, particularly Spain and India, farmers implemented practices to enhance soil health and constructed wetlands to control floods, increase biodiversity and return species that had migrated away due to drought.

Elvira Marin Irigaray, director of Aland, a foundation dedicated to land restoration in Portugal and Spain, said hundreds of farmers in Spain are using renewable practices and diversifying into crops like olive oil and almonds to reduce their dependence on industrial farming.

“This approach not only makes land more resilient to extreme weather, drought and storms, but it also protects crops and income from the risks of climate change,” said Irigaray.Farmers in Altiplano Estepario in southern Spain had received funding to improve soil health, which can help mitigate the devastating effects of flash floods, like those that hit the eastern region of Valencia in October, Irigaray added.

“Many farmers felt they were less affected by the events in October because they had taken measures to develop swales (channels), ponds, keylines and wetlands,” said Irigaray.

CHALLENGES FOR GENERATIONS

A UN-backed study released ahead of the summit on Sunday said land degradation was “undermining Earth’s capacity to sustain humanity” and failure to reverse it would “pose challenges for generations”.

More than 30 countries declared drought emergencies in the past three years, including India, China, the US, Canada, Spain, Uruguay, Southern Africa and Indonesia.According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, about 3.8 billion people rely on agricultural and food production systems for employment and financial survival.

Almost all live in Asia and Africa where poverty levels are among the highest in the world and there is limited access to green or sustainable technologies.Shloka Nath, CEO of the India Climate Collaborative, said half of India’s population depends on agriculture and related activities, including raising livestock and poultry, fishing and gathering forest products like leaves and herbs, for their livelihoods.