The 15th session of the Conference of Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), opens on Monday in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
The COP15 theme, ‘Land. Life. Legacy: From scarcity to prosperity‘, is a call to action to ensure land, which is the lifeline on this planet, will also benefit present and future generations.
The Conference will start with a Heads of State summit and high-level segment held back-to-back on 9-10 May to create political momentum and raise ambition in particular in meeting the 2030 global commitments on restoration and robust actions that build the resilience of communities that are vulnerable to drought.
Leaders are meeting in Abidjan against the backdrop of a stark warning issued by the UNCCD that up to 40% of all ice-free land is already degraded, with dire consequences for climate, biodiversity and livelihoods.
The Conference will focus on the restoration of one billion hectares of degraded land between now and 2030, future-proofing land use against the impacts of climate change, and tackling escalating disaster risks such as droughts, sand and dust storms, and wildfires.
More than a dozen heads of state and government, ministers and at least 2,000 delegates from 196 countries and the European Union are expected to be at the two-week Conference that ends Friday, 20 May 2022. High-level delegates include:
- Alassane Ouattara, President of Côte d’Ivoire
- Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations
- Abdulla Shahid, President of the United Nations General Assembly
- Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification
- Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
- Elizabeth Mrema, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity
- Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, Chief Executive Officer, Global Environment Facility
- Inger Andersen, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme
- UNCCD Land Ambassadors Tarja Halonen, Ricky Kej, Byong Hyon Kwon, Baaba Maal, and Inna Modja
- UNCCD Land Heroes David Chapoloko, Musa Ibrahim, Patricia Kombo and Moses Mulindwa
UNCCD COP15 is the first of the three Rio Conventions meetings to be held in 2022, with Biodiversity COP15 and Climate change COP27 convening later on in Kunming, China and Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, respectively.
Among the programme highlights:
- Announcement of the Abidjan Legacy Programme on 9 May by the President of Côte d’Ivoire Alassane Ouattara, focusing on job creation and the restoration of degrading land in Côte d’Ivoire;
- Gender Caucus on 9 May chaired by the First Lady of Côte d’Ivoire Dominique Ouattara, which will include the launch of a new report on the differentiated impacts of desertification, land degradation and drought on men and women;
- Green Business Forum on 10-11 May that will focus on private sector commitments to take care of the land, among other things.
- Launch of Droughtland, a global campaign to rally action on drought on 11 May
- Launch of the regional Global Land Outlook reports on 18 May
- Launch of the Sahel uplink challenge to enable communities growing the Great Green Wall to use technology to monitor progress, create jobs and commercialize their produce.
