Saudi Arabia hosts UN talks on drought

RIYADH

Saudi Arabia will host the COP16 U.N. conference on land degradation and desertification next week as the top oil exporter pitches itself as an environmental defender despite criticism of its role at climate talks.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called the meeting for the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) a "moonshot moment" to protect and restore land and respond to drought.

Activists accused Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, of trying to water down calls to phase out fossil fuels at last week's COP29 U.N. climate talks in Azerbaijan.

However, the subject of desertification is close to home for the Gulf kingdom, which has one of the biggest deserts on the planet.

"We are a desert country. We are exposed to the harshest mode of land degradation which is desertification," Deputy Environment Minister Osama Faqeeha told AFP.

"Our land is arid. Our rainfall is very little. And this is the reality. And we have been dealing with this for centuries."

Land degradation disrupts ecosystems and makes land less productive for agriculture, leading to food shortages and spurring migration.

Land is considered degraded when its productivity has been harmed by human activities like pollution or deforestation. Desertification is an extreme form of degradation.

The last gathering of parties to the convention, in Ivory Coast in 2022, produced a commitment to "accelerating the restoration of 1 billion hectares of degraded land by 2030."

But the UNCCD, which brings together 196 countries and the EU, now says 1.5 billion hectares must be restored by decade's end to combat crises including escalating droughts.