Saudi Arabia will host the COP16 UN convention on land degradation and desertification subsequent week as the highest oil exporter pitches itself as an environmental defender regardless of criticism of its position at local weather talks.
UN Secretary-Normal Antonio Guterres has known as the assembly for the United Nations Conference to Fight Desertification (UNCCD) a “moonshot second” to guard and restore land and reply to drought.
Activists accused Saudi Arabia, the world’s greatest oil exporter, of attempting to water down calls to part out fossil fuels finally week’s COP29 UN local weather talks in Azerbaijan.
Nonetheless, the topic of desertification is near dwelling for the Gulf kingdom, which has one of many greatest deserts on the planet.
“We’re a desert nation. We’re uncovered to the harshest mode of land degradation which is desertification,” deputy setting minister Osama Faqeeha instructed AFP.
“Our land is arid. Our rainfall may be very little. And that is the truth. And we’ve got been coping with this for hundreds of years.”
Land degradation disrupts ecosystems and makes land much less productive for agriculture, resulting in meals shortages and spurring migration.
Land is taken into account degraded when its productiveness has been harmed by human actions like air pollution or deforestation. Desertification is an excessive type of degradation.
– ‘Beneath the radar’ –
The final gathering of events to the conference, in Ivory Coast in 2022, produced a dedication to “accelerating the restoration of 1 billion hectares of degraded land by 2030”.
However the UNCCD, which brings collectively 196 nations and the European Union, now says 1.5 billion hectares (3.7 billion acres) have to be restored by decade’s finish to fight crises together with escalating droughts.
Saudi Arabia is aiming to revive 40 million hectares of degraded land, Faqeeha instructed AFP, with out specifying a timeline. He mentioned Riyadh anticipated restoring “a number of million hectares of land” by 2030.
Thus far 240,000 hectares have been recovered utilizing measures together with banning unlawful logging and increasing the variety of nationwide parks from 19 in 2016 to greater than 500, Faqeeha mentioned.
Different methods to revive land embody planting timber, crop rotation, managing grazing and restoring wetlands.
The COP29 local weather talks yielded a tough received $300 billion local weather finance deal that poorer nations most liable to worsening disasters dismissed as insultingly low.
UNCCD government secretary Ibrahim Thiaw instructed AFP he hoped COP16 would end in an settlement to speed up land restoration and develop a “proactive” strategy to droughts.
“We’ve already misplaced 40 p.c of our land and our soils,” Thiaw mentioned.
“World safety is absolutely at stake, and also you see it all around the world. Not solely in Africa, not solely within the Center East.”
Faqeeha mentioned he hoped the talks would convey extra world consciousness to the menace posed by degradation and desertification.
“If we proceed to permit land to degrade, we can have big losses,” he mentioned.
“Land degradation now’s a serious phenomenon that’s actually occurring beneath the radar.”
Saudi Arabia’s excessive oil manufacturing, leading to eye-watering income for oil big Aramco, routinely attracts the ire of local weather activists.
However its publicity to desertification may give it extra credibility in the course of the Riyadh talks.
“With the desertification battle, (Saudi Arabia is) not essentially immediately contributing to the issue, whereas with local weather change, it clearly is,” mentioned Patrick Galey, senior fossil fuels investigator for World Witness.
“Saudi Arabia can, with some legitimacy, declare to be standing up for the little man in terms of desertification, as a result of it’s immediately affected.”
– Freedom of speech –
Hundreds of delegates have registered to attend the December 2-13 talks in Riyadh together with “near 100” authorities ministers, Thiaw mentioned.
French President Emmanuel Macron is because of attend the One Water Summit, going down on the sidelines of COP16 on December 3.
Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has been criticised for mounting repression at the same time as the dominion pursues head-spinning social reforms supposed to lure vacationers and traders.
As a UN-organised occasion, civil society together with campaigners will be capable of participate, though it was not clear if protests — a rarity within the kingdom — could be allowed.
Saudi Arabia is hoping for robust, “constructive” civil society participation in COP16, Faqeeha mentioned.
“We’re welcoming all constructive engagement,” he instructed AFP, whereas Thiaw mentioned all teams could be welcome to contribute and categorical themselves.
“In response to UN guidelines, after all there are guidelines of engagement, and everyone is assured freedom of speech,” Thiaw mentioned.
