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RIYADH — Restoring the world’s degraded land and holding back its deserts will require at least US$2,6 trillion in investment by the end of the decade, the UN executive overseeing global talks on the issue told Reuters, quantifying the cost for the first time.
More frequent and severe droughts as a result of climate change combined with the food needs of a rising population meant societies were at greater risk of upheaval unless action was taken, Ibrahim Thiaw said ahead of talks in Riyadh this week.
The two-week meeting aims to strengthen the world’s drought resilience, including by toughening up the legal obligations of states, laying out strategic next steps and securing finance.
A large chunk of the around US$1 billion a day that is required will need to come from the private sector, said Thiaw, who is executive secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
“The bulk of the investments on land restoration in the world is coming from public money. And that is not right. Because essentially the main driver of land degradation in the world is food production . . . which is in the hands of the private sector,” Thiaw said, adding that as of now it provides only 6 percent of the money needed to rehabilitate damaged land.
“How come that one hand is degrading the land and the other hand has the charge of restoring it and repairing it?,” said Thiaw, whilst acknowledging the responsibility of governments to set and enforce good land-use policies and regulations.
With a growing population meaning that the world needs to produce twice as much food on the same amount of land, private sector investment would be critical, he said. — Reuters
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