COP17 Summit in Mongolia to Address Desertification and Climate Change

## Desertification and Climate Change: A Growing Concern Drought is currently sweeping across the Northern hemisphere, leaving normally green urban parks looking like dry savannah, causing crops to fail, food prices to rise, and billions to be shaved off economic output. The issues to be discussed at the UN's COP17 summit in Mongolia should be nearer the top of policy-makers' minds, especially considering that many countries face far worse conditions with fewer resources. ## What is COP17? COP17 is the conference of parties (COP) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). The parties are 196 governments, which includes all of the countries recognized by the UN. The convention was conceived at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, at the same time as the other two larger "Rio trio" conventions on climate and biodiversity. While the climate convention's COP takes place every year, the UNCCD COP happens only once every two years. ## Combating Desertification Desertification is the process by which land degrades and becomes more like a desert, making it harder - and sometimes impossible - to grow crops or graze livestock there. Climate change and other human activities, like excessive irrigation which depletes ground water, are making this process worse, causing poverty, hunger, health problems, forced migration, and loss of species. The UN estimates that half a billion people live within areas that have experienced desertification since the 1980s and that two-fifths of the world's land is degraded. ## What Will Be Negotiated at COP17? The main issue is what form a new initiative to tackle drought could take. The last COP saw Africa push hard for this to be a protocol - a kind of binding sub-treaty to the UNCCD. However, the US, Europe, Argentina, and others argued that would take too long to set up, cost too much, and take money away from what can be spent on the ground. They prefer a legally weaker alternative - a framework instead of a protocol. Governments will also negotiate a new policy on protecting rangelands and pastoralists from degradation. ## COP17 Host Country Mongolia COP17 host country Mongolia has a lot of rangelands and pastoralists and has pushed successfully for the UN to declare 2026 the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists. It is keen to agree a decision at COP17 bringing those issues more to the forefront of the UNCCD. Negotiators will also debate the UNCCD's post-2030 strategic framework, which they hope to adopt at COP18 in 2028. Campaign groups like the World Wildlife Fund want a stronger focus on biodiversity and nature-positive food systems. ## What to Watch Out for at COP17 At the last COP two years ago, host Saudi Arabia led the creation of an initiative called the Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership to help 80 of the poorest nations deal with drought. It received $12 billion in pledges, mainly from Gulf-based development finance institutions. Saudi Arabia is expected to report back on whether these pledges have been delivered and how the money will reach those in need now. There are also hopes that governments will announce financial support for Mongolia's Rangelands Flagship Initiative, which aims to mobilise investment in projects to fight land degradation. ## COP17 Presidency COP17 will be woman-led with Mongolia's foreign minister, Battsetseg Batmunkh, as president. This will also be the first COP for the UNCCD's new executive director Yasmin Fouad. Before being appointed environment minister in her native Egypt, Fouad was a scientist and lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's special report on desertification. She played a key role at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt in 2022. ## Negotiating Dynamics The UNCCD has six main negotiating groups: Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Northern Mediterranean, Central and Eastern Europe, and developed donor countries. Governments can also speak in their own capacities. While divisions between the Global North and Global South do exist at UNCCD COPs, they are not as stark as at climate COPs.