The UNCCD is one of the three United Nations “Rio Conventions” alongside the UNFCCC (climate) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (biodiversity –“CBD”)). It is not as well-known as the other COPs despite covering connected and equally consequential topics such as water and food security, land degradation and associated environmental challenges.

The UNCCD is the “sole legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management” addressing “the arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, known as the drylands, where some of the most vulnerable ecosystems and peoples can be found”.

According to IISD, “[a]pproximately 500 million people live in areas that have experienced desertification in the past four decades. Land degradation is already affecting up to 40% of the world’s land, with far-reaching impacts on food production, water availability, livelihoods and economic stability.” And looking forward droughts will increase in frequency and severity exacerbated by climate change and unsustainable land management impacting peoples and economies further.

“Land is our most vital infrastructure – underpinning food security, water, livelihoods and stability. When land fails, insecurity rises — through lost livelihoods, forced displacement and increased competition over scarce resources.” UNCCD Executive Secretary Yasmine Fouad.

Droughts are hitting much closer to home for those of us based in Europe and water and food security topics are rapidly rising up the policy agenda. We are seeing increasingly early and intense droughts across the UK and mainland Europe. These are exactly the types of environmental issues that the UNCCD COP was established to address. Previous UNCCD COP negotiations and experience provide insight and understanding as to the far-reaching effects of drought and its impacts on economic stability, the lives and livelihoods of people and national security, including as a result of water and food scarcity.

The theme for this year’s UNCCD COP 17 is “Restoring Land. Restoring Hope.” and the case for land restoration is compelling – a theme intrinsically linked to nature and biodiversity and climate change. According to the UNCCD's Global Land Outlookevery $1 invested in restoring degraded land generates an estimated $7–$30 in economic benefits, including improved food production, carbon sequestration, and water quality and roughly USD 44 trillion of economic output (more than half of global GDP) is moderately or highly reliant on nature. Making a compelling case for action to cooperate to restore degraded land globally.

Delegates from the UNCCD’s 197 Parties are expected to come together this August recognising that land restoration is crucial to macro-economic stability and food security and “is also essential to reducing instability, preventing displacement and strengthening human and national security in vulnerable regions.”¹

Many believe that technology and AI are likely to form a part of the solution to restore degraded land, reduce the impact of climate change and to support nature restoration and resilience. Existing technologies, such as satellite monitoring, AI-driven early warning systems, remote sensing, digital soil mapping, and precision water management tools are already being deployed to achieve many of the goals of UNCCD to reduce and restore land degradation and mitigate drought. UNCCD’s focus on restoring degraded land to a healthy state demonstrates the intersection between the three Rio Conventions in respect of water allocation, flood resilience and climate adaptation. Solving the intersecting issues common to the three Rio Conventions offers a unique opportunity to consider how the application of technology can reduce pressures on land use and other environmental resources, such as water, from residential and commercial development, including agriculture, industry and data centres. 

COP17 will begin with a review of the progress reached on its 2018-2030 Strategic Framework and the final report of the Intergovernmental Working Group on the post-2030 Strategic Framework. The UNCCD’s biennial budget will be adopted and negotiations will centre around²: 

• enhancing ongoing efforts to address desertification, land degradation and drought (“DLDD”) as a driver of migration;
• boosting drought preparedness, response and resilience; 
• developing effective and meaningful gender-specific indicators for future Strategic Frameworks;
• boosting resilience to sand and dust storms;
• the integration of land tenure into the implementation of the Convention and LDN initiatives; 
• supporting rangeland health and pastoralist resilience; and
• participation of civil society and the private sector in the work of the Convention. 

After these negotiations, the second week will feature a Heads of State Summit, followed by a number of thematic days dedicated to key priorities connected to drought and land use which are intended to connect political decisions and real-world solutions including private sector actors, making everyone part of an Action Agenda³

• Finance Day: Ministers of finance, development banks, financial institutions and the private sector are brought together to help unlock large-scale investment, closing the one billion US dollars per day finance gap for land restoration. “Discussions will focus on healthy land as an asset class, blended finance and de-risking capital, fiscal policy reform, greener global value chains and the links between land, security and migration.”

The UNCCD website explains that these events position “healthy land as an economic and financial priority” and aims to “expand corporate commitments on land footprint reduction, drought resilience, regenerative supply chains and natural capital disclosure and advance sector-specific commitments in areas such as responsible mining, land rehabilitation, regenerative fibres and traceability”. 

Finance Day will also support work on a common taxonomy for sustainable land-use and drought-resilience finance and the launch of the Rangeland Flagship Initiative.

• Water Day: Discussions will include proactive drought risk management and how to strengthen cooperation on the land-water nexus and the integrated management of water resources. It will also highlight nature-based solutions, ecosystem-based adaptation, climate-resilient water and land systems and financing for drought-resilient landscapes.

We also expect the full launch of the International Drought Resilience Observatory (an AI-driven data platform) which “sheds light on the capacity of territories to anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to drought from various perspectives … users from the global to the local level can generate visualizations to understand where the pain points are and set priorities for action”.

• Land and People Day: There will be a focus on land and rangeland restoration, sustainable land management and inclusive land governance, placing the voices of land stewards at the heart of discussions and highlighting the perspectives of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, pastoralists, youth, women and civil society organisations.
• Food Systems and Soil Health Day: Acknowledging that food systems are the leading drivers of land degradation globally, conversations will connect soil restoration to food security, agricultural productivity and the livelihoods of farming communities, while highlighting soil health as a foundation of resilient and productive food systems.

The UNCCD has proposed three pillars to support countries vulnerable to desertification. Below we discuss what they are, highlighting the clear need for technological solutions to enable results.

Technology is an essential component of drought early warning systems – declaring a drought can be highly political and subjective, yet declaring a drought too late can have devastating consequences on lives and livelihoods. Systems combining good data with local and traditional knowledge can be used to reduce risks and achieve more effective responses to droughts.

Appropriate technologies and data can be used to inform vulnerability and risk assessments, identifying those peoples and systems most at risk from drought, providing better forecasts with detailed knowledge on how landscapes and societies respond to a lack of rain fall, with a focus on different sectors such as agriculture, energy, tourism and health.

There are practical drought mitigation measures which can be delivered immediately to deliver real and tangible benefits to communities, such as sustainable irrigation schemes for crops and livestock, water harvesting schemes, recycling and reuse of water, switching to more drought tolerant crops, expanding crop insurance schemes and establishing alternative livelihoods that can provide income in drought-prone areas.

We look forward to seeing greater engagement across the business and technology community with UNCDD going forward given the importance of these themes and how they intersect with nature, water and climate mitigation and adaptation themes in the other COPs.

Our global Sustainable Finance & Investment group brings together a multidisciplinary global team that provides clients with best-in-market support. We are following developments relating to international sustainability developments, so please get in touch if you would like to discuss.

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This note is intended to be a general guide to the latest ESG developments. It does not constitute legal advice.

Authored by Emily Julier and Bryony Widdup.