Reflections from UNCCD COP16 in Riyadh, December 2024
Guest blog by Charles McNeill Senior Fellow, Meridian Institute, former Senior Advisor, Forests & Climate, Interfaith Rainforest Initiative, UN I participated in the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) COP 16 that concluded last week (13 December 2024) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - with more than 20,000 participants from 197 countries -- and the outcomes were both encouraging and deeply sobering. Although I have spent my UN career supporting the implementation of two of the three global Conventions emerging from the 1992 Rio Earth Summit – the ones on Climate Change and Biodiversity – this was the first time I participated in a COP for this ‘third’, and lesser known - but extremely important -- Rio Convention devoted to stopping desertification, land degradation and drought. I now understand much better how absolutely central this ‘Land’ agenda is to global efforts to address the linked crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, food insecurity, migration, and even global...