BENGALURU, India (AP) – Despite two weeks of U.N.-sponsored talks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the 197 countries involved failed to agree early Saturday on a plan to deal with global droughts that have gotten longer and worse as the climate warms.
The biennial talks, known as COP 16 and organized by the UN body that deals with combating desertification and droughts, attempted to create strong global mandates that would legally bind and require nations to fund early warning systems and build resilient infrastructure in poorer countries. especially in Africa, which is most affected by the changes.
The UN Convention to Combat Desertification issued a report earlier this week warning that if global warming trends continue, nearly five billion people – including most of Europe, parts of the western US, Brazil, East Asia and Central Africa – will be affected by the drying of the Earth’s countries by the end of the century compared to a quarter of today’s world population. The report also notes that agriculture is particularly at risk, which could lead to food insecurity for communities around the world.
This is the fourth time this year that UN talks aimed at getting countries to agree to more progress in combating biodiversity loss, climate change and plastic pollution have either failed to reach consensus or produced disappointing results, worrying many nations, especially the most vulnerable.
Nations participating in the Riyadh talks have decided to kick the can down the road for talks in 2026 hosted by Mongolia.
“The parties need more time to agree on the best way to address the critical issue of drought,” Ibrahim Thiaw, head of the UNCCD, said at the end of the talks in Riyadh.
Thiaw said the conference was “like no other” in the 30-year history of the talks. “We have elevated the soil and drought agenda beyond sector-specific debates and positioned it as a cornerstone of global efforts to address interconnected challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, food insecurity, migration and global security.
Longer-term solutions to the drought—such as limiting climate change—were not up for debate.
Host Saudi Arabia has been criticized in the past for holding back progress on cutting fossil fuel emissions at other talks. The Persian Gulf country is one of the world’s largest oil producers and exporters, with the second largest global oil reserves.
Earlier in the conference, host Saudi Arabia, several other countries and international banks pledged $2.15 billion for drought resilience. The Arab Coordination Group, made up of 10 Middle East-based development banks, has committed $10 billion by 2030 to address land degradation, desertification and drought. The funds are expected to support 80 of the most vulnerable countries as they prepare for worsening drought conditions.
However, the UN estimates that between 2007 and 2017, global droughts will cost $125 billion.
Erika Gomez, Panama’s chief negotiator, said that while no decision had been reached on the drought, significant progress had been made on other key issues.
“We have achieved several key milestones, particularly in the growing appeal of civil society engagement and the gender decision,” Gomez said. “Until the end, the parties could not agree on whether the new drought response tool should be legally binding or not,” said Jes Weigelt of European climate think tank TMG Research, who followed the talks.
“I fear that UNCCD COP 16 has suffered the same fate as the biodiversity and climate COP this year. It failed to deliver,” he said.
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Sibi Arasu, The Associated Press