UN talks fail to reach agreement on dealing with rising risk of global drought

BENGALURU, India (AP) — Despite two weeks of U.N.-sponsored talks in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh, the participating 197 nations failed to agree early Saturday on a plan to deal with global droughts, made longer and more severe by a warming climate.

The biennial talks, known as COP 16 and organized by a UN body that deals with combating desertification and droughts, attempted to create strong global mandates to legally bind and require nations to fund early warning systems and build resilient infrastructure in poorer countries, particularly Africa, which is worst affected by the changes.

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification released a report earlier this week warning that if global warming trends continue, nearly five billion people — including in most of Europe, parts of the western U.S., Brazil, eastern Asia and central Africa — will be affected by the drying of Earth’s lands by the end of the century, up from a quarter of the world’s population today. The report also said farming was particularly at risk, which can lead to food insecurity for communities worldwide.

This is the fourth time UN talks aimed at getting countries to agree to make more headway on tackling biodiversity loss, climate change and plastic pollution have either failed to reach a consensus or delivered disappointing results this year, worrying many nations, particularly the most vulnerable.

Nations participating in the Riyadh discussions decided to push the can down the road to the 2026 talks, hosted by Mongolia.

“Parties need more time to agree on what’s the best way forward to address the critical issue of drought,” said Ibrahim Thiaw, the UNCCD chief, speaking at the end of the Riyadh talks.

Thiaw said the conference was “like no other” in the talks’ 30-year history. “We have elevated the land and drought agenda beyond sector-specific discussions, establishing it as a cornerstone of global efforts to address inter-connected challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, food insecurity, migration and global security.”

Longer-lasting solutions to drought — such as the curbing of climate change — were not a talking point.

Host Saudi Arabia has been criticized in the past for stalling progress on curbing emissions from fossil fuels at other negotiations. The Gulf nation is one of the world’s largest oil producers and exporters with the second-largest global oil reserves.

Earlier in the conference, hosts Saudi Arabia, a few other countries and international banks pledged $2.15 billion for drought resilience. And the Arab Coordination Group, made up of 10 development banks based in the Middle East, committed $10 billion by 2030 to address degrading land, desertification and drought. The funds are expected to support 80 of the most vulnerable countries prepare for worsening drought conditions.

But the U.N. estimates that between 2007 and 2017, droughts will cost $125 billion worldwide.

Erika Gomez, lead negotiator from Panama said while a decision on dealing with drought was not reached, significant progress was made in other key issues.

“We have achieved several key milestones, particularly in the growing traction of civil society engagement and the gender decision,” Gomez said. “Until the very end, parties could not agree on whether or not the new instrument to respond to drought should be legally binding or not,” said Jes Weigelt of European climate think-tank TMG Research who has been tracking the talks.

“I fear, the UNCCD COP 16 has suffered the same fate as the biodiversity and climate COPs this year. It failed to deliver,” he said.

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