Business4Land Champions' Council and Fashion4Land Show - Action Dome, UNCCD COP17

Your Excellency's, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, welcome or welcome back to those of you who are not without throughout find and stay here in the action dome.
So let me tell you a little bit about today's conversations because we have spent a lot of today talking about some very big numbers, the finance needed for restoration, the cost of inaction, and the capital we need to mobilize.
But behind all those numbers is something much more tangible, land, and the livelihoods, businesses, and communities that depend upon it.
So this evening is really about bringing the different threads of today's conversations together.
We'll hear from finance, business, leadership, restoration, and very shortly, like I announced earlier, quite literally fashion.
We are delighted to be closing Finance Day together with the government of Luxembourg and the Sustainable Fiber Alliance, and with so many business for land champions, partners, and friends here with us this evening.
Before we begin, you will have noticed the gift bags prepared for our VVIP guests here this evening.
They have been provided by UNDP through its reads for change campaign and the idea behind them is rather beautiful.
A single thread can tell a powerful story, a story of nature restored, livelihood sustained and value created.
You can discover that story by scanning the QR code on the swing tag or by visiting the UNDP Pavilion here at Cp 17.
So many thanks to UNDP for that.
But for now back to finance because one message has come through particularly strong today, and restoration is not simply an environmental imperative.
It's an economic opportunity.
We've had some very strong cases for that here today.
But capturing this opportunity requires us to rethink risk, develop new financial instruments, and above all, build partnerships between governments, finance, and business.
Few countries that have done more to pioneer innovative approaches to sustainable finance than Luxembourg.
To open Our next session this evening, it's my pleasure to welcome Her Excellency Martin Schumer, special envoy of the government of the Grand Duy of Luxembourg here to the stage.
Thank you, Your Excellency.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen.
I know it was a long day and you are all tired, but we will be short.
After a full day of discussions on finance issues where we have presented and heard a number of interesting and innovative ideas, perhaps our most pertinent question is how we can translate these ideas into long term results, which would have a lasting impact.
Finance stay has also shown that the choice is not between public finance and private finance.
The real challenge is to make the private and public sectors join forces and use each of them for what they do best.
Public and concessional finance can take easily risk, support project operations, and create the conditions for new markets.
Development finance can bring discipline and scale.
Private capital can multiply the resources available and help move solutions from individual projects to investable markets.
This is an approach where Luxembourg has a longstanding experience.
For more than two decades, we have worked to build bridges between public objectives and private capital.
Today, Luxembourg is Europe's leading hub for sustainable investment funds and one of the world's foremost centers for sustainable finance.
We are home to around a third of Europe's sustainable fund assets, and the Luxemburg Green Exchange lists 42% of sustainable bonds worldwide.
Financial innovation, public policy, and private investment can and should move in the same direction.
We believe this same approach can help us to contribute to one of the most urgent challenges we face, growth resilience.
For too long, drought finance has focused on the immediate consequences of shocks.
These instruments obviously matter very much.
However, resilience starts earlier.
This means investing before the crisis, reducing vulnerability so that when drought comes, its impact is smaller.
Finance is not an end in itself.
Behind the figures and investment needs are livelihoods, families and communities increasingly exposed to the effects of drought.
It is about ensuring that these communities have the means to strengthen their resilience and better withstand future shocks because ultimately, resilience is about people, and I think that's what you heard in many different interventions today.
Resilience is built on the intersection of water, agriculture, and healthy landscapes and through investments that recognize and address these connections.
Luxembourg and the UN CCD would like to accelerate this very dynamic.
Tomorrow on Water Day at 11:30 in the action dome, We will launch the drought resilience Investment facility, DRF, in short, the first global investment vehicle dedicated exclusively to drought resilience and as a direct implementation of the RET Global Drought Resilience Partnership, DIF will bring together public, philanthropic, development finance, and private capital using blended finance to turn resilience needs into investable opportunities.
This is precisely the kind of bridge we need between discussions of today and implementation on the ground in the future.
We believe it opens an important new space for investment and an opportunity to be part of it, to be a part of it right from the start.
Luxembourg is taking this opportunity and we encourage governments, development finance institutions, and private investors to join us tomorrow at the launch, but also as partners and investors in the journey ahead.
Capital is never neutral.
It builds something.
Our task is to make sure it increasingly builds resilience, not only in our economies and landscapes, but in the lives and livelihoods of the people who depend on them.
So as we close finance day, I would like to thank you UN CCD, the Business for land Champions, our Mongolian host, and all of you for the energy and ideas you have brought to this day.
Thank you very much for your attention.
Many thanks, Martin Schulman.
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts here with us.
So as we are today, we've heard about finance, we've heard about partnerships, enabling conditions, bankability, viability, and risk.
But ultimately, none of this moves without leadership, and that is precisely why the Business for and Champions Council was established to bring together business leaders prepared to turn ambition into concrete action for land.
So before I welcome all the champions here on this stage, I'd like to welcome Matthew Donda, the managing director of NextEra, for opening remarks from a champion.
Thank you very much for the introduction, Charlotte, I was hoping that she was going to coach me on how to do a Date, but I will wait for the next ones.
Well, it's an honor tonight to represent business for end, to represent the private sector.
I wanted to provide to share some feedback on the something that I thought was missing sometime a little bit.
It's the economic impact that all the initiatives that I can hear about can provide.
First of all, I would like to explain who we are and what we do.
Next year is a mid size company located in France where we manufacture natural and organic ingredients that come from Acas and Bobab trees that grow exclusively in dry land areas of Sale in Africa and that are part of a great Green Wall initiatives.
These ingredients have been used for decades, for centuries for their nutritional benefits and unfortunately, they are completely unknown to a consumer and also under evaluated for their potential.
For example, in the case of Aksgam, they employ more than 3 million people in those regions.
It's the population size of Mongolia.
Of course, for a land, health, and the soil is part of our business model, but For a company, for a CEO, for a shareholder, at the end, the economic impact is the most obvious outcome that should be known locally and also internationally.
I think the best KPI, the most bankable is the ROI that you can create.
This is what we will look at.
I will try to explain an initiative that we launched in 2009 with an NGO called SOSL in Chad.
Where one of our largest customer with the European Union and the Agency of French Development, we created a fund dedicated to invest, of course, in the sustainable land management and in other initiatives.
But at the end, the economic impact that was created allowed to have an almost double the production and the volumes produced more volumes, more revenues, and that's how we started creating economic impact.
The quality was also another added value.
Because we want to talk about 20:30, we launched a third phase where we count to double the same volumes produced.
The reason why I was using this example is to really show and highlight how collaboration, of course, partnership, can create and can be a catalyzer of all the investments that are being made and that can create some economical growth in regions that really deserve it in the dry land areas and where we are hoping to deploy in larger areas the same program.
I hope that the message can be shared and heard that the rest of the night will be nice for everyone.
Please do stay with us, Matthew.
Because next I'm going to invite all the champions to please come and join us here on this stage under a round of applause, please, ladies and gentlemen.
So welcome to all our champions, nine champions here, and I'm going to put you to the test.
I am going to give you all of you 60 seconds each and one ask, quite a task here at Cp 17.
I am going to invite each one of you to give us one concrete call to action.
So you want business or businesses, governments, investors, or partners to actually do to accelerate action for land.
Champions, you have 60 seconds each, and we are starting with you, Bma, you are Vice Chairman of the Business Council of Mongolia.
Charlotte, thank you.
We had a very long day.
I would like to say the following.
We had the first mining forum today, and at the mining forum, we discussed about dry land mining initiative and we are committed to building a platform that will select about ten to 15 high impact projects and those projects we will also seek the funding for such projects, and this will be really something part of my life for the next two years, right? And as a champion, I'll be able to commit the time and help and work with ICMA and other partners.
Makes sense.
Mm hm.
I'm going to have to use this microphone.
Thank you so much.
Natasha, you are next.
And I need to introduce you, of course, your vice president and head of sustainability and strategic engagement at Biya.
Thank you very much.
Yes, long day.
I mentioned earlier today that agriculture does not have a shortage on solutions.
It has many times a shortage on conditions that allow them to scale.
If you have been working agriculture, farmers make decision season by season base it on return, risk, and what works on their land.
That's very important because it's not one size fits all.
The world is very diverse, cropping systems are very diverse.
So My culture action is, let's stop building around the farmers and let's build the solutions with the farmers because we've seen many, many cases, solutions being developed with fragmented incentives or different metrics across the value chain.
So if we do it right, when we make the smart decision, the better farming decision, the better economic decision, I guarantee the farmers will take us to scale and the scale that we need to make real impact.
So that's my culture action.
Thank you very much, Natasha.
Thank you.
Tell me you are next, and you are the CEO of SCM.
Yeah, as a farmer from Egypt, I call on everyone here, from governments, from development partners, business partners, civil society, to really acknowledge ecosystem services of our farmers as financial instruments, real created value.
And if we do this and if we create a real market for these ecosystem services, whether it's carbon credit markets or whatever, we will not need to donate money to them.
They will be honored for their ecosystem services and will be compensated and will be our real land and climate heroes, our farmers.
Thank you, Hemi.
Julie Green, Chief Sustainability Officer of Olav Agri.
Thank you.
It's been a real honor to share the stage with so many distinguished panelists discussing the catalytic power of policy coherence of measurement and reporting and disclosures to catalyze action to restore and regenerate the land.
And so my call to action is that these sorts of high level discussions and the really interesting examples that have been shared that these are discussions that we enact at landscape level.
As a company, we can make differences, you know, at individual farm levels, but that remains a mosaic of small, disparate, fragmented solutions unless we take a coherent landscape level approach that is grounded in science, that is backed by investment and by coherent policies.
Thank you.
We're going to move straight ton of EY.
Hello, everyone.
Supporting the Business for the UN CCD in their initiatives.
We've done it last month in the London Climate Week in London.
We're going to do next month at the Water Forum in Italy, but particularly supporting the Business for land in exploiting how the insurance industry can they risk financing and sustainable projects around the globe.
Thank you.
Khaled A Loman, residents of EMA Engineering Consulting.
It's to short.
I'll take some of it down.
We like it short.
We're running out of time, sadly.
The thing is that for the last year, we've been working in the Federation with the Sustainability Committee on designing a project or an initiative to engage private sector in the land course.
Months later, I received this email from Sarah sending business for land and I said, Wow, we're thinking alike.
Thank God we started even before the pitch came.
So, business for land for Saudi Arabia is a reality even before it was announced.
And as a champion, and I call this to my fellow champions, that being a champion is a responsibility, not a privilege.
So let's make it happen.
Thank you very much.
Alexander Capelli, Group Environment Deputy Director at LVMH.
To call for action.
First one at LVHach, we are very proud with the French organization to have launched the first Business Foreign National Hb.
I know that other countries are following, so we encourage every country and companies to launch Business Foreign National Hb.
And the second call is that you may know that with SFA UN CCD, we have launched in Mongolia and the Cashman supply chain, a One Health project within the Kashmir supply chain, and we are committed to investigate and to explore other opportunities with other stakeholders to implement One Health project in other supply chain across the world.
Thank you very much, Aleksan.
And we are also joined here on this stage by the Minister of Environment of Côte D'ivoire.
You are not a business for champion per se, but you are a champion here, of course, and you are a supporter of the initiative.
So what are your thoughts? I think they said it all.
I don't know whether seen it this is something, but my message is to the mining industry, so I would like to ask them for every acre of land that they will mine while they would do extractive activities.
They should also link that to one acre of rehabilitated land for improving the food production, improving the livelihoods of the people, improving food self sufficiency, and improving the well being of the population to balance mining and socioeconomic development.
And that's my message to you.
Many thanks, Excellency, and please join me in thanking our inaugural Business for and Champions council here.
Many thanks for sharing your call to action, your big task, mission accomplished.
I'm very happy to say.
Thank you.
Of course, all the thoughts, ambitions, and commitments we are hearing here today and will hear throughout the week here at COP 17 do not exist in isolation.
One of the challenges after any COP is ensuring that the energy generated here, and clearly there's a lot of it, does not disappear when everybody gets on the plane home.
The Cp 17 action agenda is about precisely the opposite, turning commitments into partnerships and implementation beyond this conference.
The Business for Lance National hubs have an important role to play in taking that work into individual markets.
Next, I'd like to invite Yang Wen Bin, who's the Executive Vice and Control and executive, Vice President and Secretary-General of the China National Sand Control and Desert Industry Society, representing the Business for Land China Hb.
Mr.
Yang, the floor is yours.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Okay.
Distinguished guests.
Ladies and gentlemen, good evening.
I'm speaking on behalf of China National and Control and Desert Industry Society and business plan China The financing discussion today are very critical.
I would like to share three key points from China on the growing experience.
A function.
First, China's proven solution to shell, we have achieved the 2030 land degradation neutrality targets.
Our low coverage and control technology and the photovotic plus and control model deliver ecological benefit together with energy supply and global livelihood improvement.
This cost effective practice can be replicated in Mongolia, Central Asia, and other certification prone regions.
We are ready to organize technical exchange led by practitioner and enterprises.
He in Secondly, our society offer delivery oriented platform as a national network organization.
We get around 200 corporate members across energy, agriculture, forestry, and finance.
Many have solid control experiences and are willing to invest overseas.
What we need a concrete project pipeline instead of general statements.
The business plan China Hub was officially launch in Beijing this July after signing the MOU with UCSD.
To continue, go? Third, China has tested multi party financial model, government policy support, bank loans, social capital participation, places such as book show, Deser can be turned into a pretty productive assets.
We provide stakeholders benefit mechanism we design, clear project matching channels from CP 17 and business forn Secretariat will unlock substantial Chinese corporate engagements.
Sinai posted in Mongolian this c grass and degradation challenges closely aligned with China's experience.
We seed practical drawing demonstration project rather than feminism towards satisfy defile yellow pine bush Laoshi, Tabata, but who did rule to j China and Control and and Industry Society and China Business for China Hub open a door for everyone to cooperate.
Let us deliver tangible land restoration result here in Rambo.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much.
Many thanks, Mr.
Yang.
Thank you so very much.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for, and I'm not talking about the refreshments which will be served right now as we start.
We have spent fine and day here talking about investment, leadership, and action.
But we're now going to finish with another powerful agent of transformation and its creativity.
Fashion has a profound relationship with land.
The fibers and materials we wear connect us to agriculture, to water, to biodiversity, landscapes, and of course, and importantly, to the communities producing them.
And Fashion for and brings that relationship quite literally onto the stage.
Next, we are delighted to welcome Mongolian and international designers for tonight's Fashion for and Showcase.
And to take us through the show, please welcome one of Mongolia's best known television presenters, Sirensetkk Ching.
Ladies and gentlemen, please give her a big round of applause.
What fabulous passion from you.
Welcome.
Hi, miss Charlotte, Pan.
Thank you very much.
Very very good evening, ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, dear friends.
It is our great pleasure and honor to welcome you all to the event called Fashion for Land here at Cop 17 in Obata, the capital city of Mongolia.
Tonight's event would be more than fashion show.
It would be a very interesting story about land, about culture and nature, about people and their responsibility.
Mangola is a country where the land is deeply connected with our identity and with our way of living for centuries.
That connection, that relationship, has created a unique heritage of craftsmen and some of the world's most precious fibers, including cashmere, including yak, fiber, and wool.
We are very happy that this fishing show is particularly meaningful at Cop 17 here while all whole world is coming together to discuss about the land, about nature, about our future of Mother Earth.
And tonight we bring together eight brands, eight different creative perspectives.
Some are rooted, direct lingually and some carry Mongolian heritage in international fashion to the stage.
And ladies and gentlemen, let's begin.
We begin tonight's journey with Modur Kashmir, a Mongolian luxury brand redefining Kashmir through the philosophy of quiet luxury and responsible fashion.
For Modur True luxury is not about excess or following trends.
It is about exceptional natural fiber, design, timeless craftsmanship, and cautious choices.
Let's have a look at the screen.
The beauty of modor lies in its restraint, softness without excess, elegance without noise, luxtur with purpose by bringing Mongolian Kashmir into contemporary luxury language.
Modor brand shows how heritage, modern design and responsibility can exist beautifully together.
Tonight, Modor invites us to discover a different kind of luxury, one that is port in its expression, yet powerful in its values.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Modor Kashmir.
Oh, my God.
Okay.
Ladies and gentlemen, your loud of applause to models, and this is model Mbolin brand in a premium Cashmere brand.
Our next presentation is Ouna founded in 2002 by Mongolian born designer Ouma Thundj and based in London City.
Ouna brings together the spirit of the Mongolian step with contemporary London design.
The brand carries Mongolian heritage and craftsmanship into an international facial language, creating timeless Kashmiir pieces with a distinctly modern identity.
Ouma represents the journey of Mongolian creativity beyond borders, showing how heritage can evolve, travel, and become part of the global fashion conversation.
Please welcome Ouma.
This is Ana Kashmir Brand.
Thank you.
Next, we welcome NAN Mets, a contemporary knitwear brand from China.
Founded in 2021, NAN Mets explores new possibilities in knitwear through refined materials, complex cracksmanship, and cable design approach.
Inspired by landscapes, cultural heritage, and traditional ways of life, the brand creates a dialogue between nature, imagination, and contemporary fashion.
Tonight, NAN Mets brings a fresh international perspective to our fashion for land runway, reminding us that responsibilation is a global conversation that crosses cultures and borders.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Man Nets Brand.
This is a contemporary watwear brand from China.
Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, our next brand is Bodos.
A Mongolian meatwear brand creating premium Kashmeir in York down garments for domestic and international markets.
With a strong focus on Mongolian natural fibers, Bodos combines responsible sourcing, skill craftsmanship, and contemporary natwear design.
Its work represents the growing potential of Mongolia to create value not only from its natural resources, but also through design, manufacturing, and creativity.
Vos is part of a new generation of Mongolian brands showing that our natural heritage can become a foundation for contemporary, globally relevant fashion.
Please welcome Vds.
I Mongolian meatwe brand bus.
Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, next, we welcome togola, a Chinese brand specializing in yak fiber.
Togola connects the natural world of high altitude grasslands with contemporary fashion, focusing on the unique qualities of yak fiber and its journey from natural material to Finnish garment.
The brand explores how an ancient and deeply natural fiber can be presented through a modern and responsible patient perspective.
By working with yak fiber, Togola brings attention to the possibilities of natural materials and the importance of understanding their journey from nature to flation.
Tonight, Togola brings another international perspective to our conversation about natural fibers, sustainability, and responsibilation.
Please welcome Tangola, a Chinese brand specializing in yak fiber.
I don't know.
The A Chinese brand specializing in yacht fiber togola Founded in 2005, Goyal Kashmir is a Mongolian family owned Kashmir manufacturer and fashion brand.
We welcome to the stage Oil Kashmir.
For more than two decades, Kool has combined Mongolian craftsmanship and heritage with contemporary design, bringing the story of Mongolian Kashmir to customers around the world.
The brand demonstrates how Mongolia's natural resources and traditional expertise can be transformed into modern, high value fashion.
Tonight, Ky Proudly presents its two Mongolia collection created for the Nelo Kirkina 2026 Winter Olympics.
This collection brings together national identity, performance, and Mongolian Kashmir on an international stage.
Please welcome Goyal Kashmir.
This is Team Mongolia Collection created for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics by Roy Brand.
Thank you very much.
Difference, our next presentation comes from Godi Kashmir, one of Mongolia's best known Kashmir brands.
Founded in 1981, Kodi has spent more than four decades transforming Mongolia's precious Kashmir fiber into products recognized by customers around the world.
The brand represents the combination of Mongolian natural resources, craftsmanship, modern manufacturing, and international ambition.
From the fiber produced in Mongolia to finished garments reaching global markets, Godi demonstrates the potential of Mongolia's Kashmi industry to create value through expertise, innovation, and manufacturing.
Godi continues to carry the story of Mongolian Kashmir from the S to the global fashion market.
Please welcome Godi Kashmir brand.
And One of Mbai's best known Kashmir brand of Gobi Kashmir.
And.
This is Gobi Kashmir, one of Moungala's best known Kashmir brand.
Thank you very much.
And our final brand of this facial show is Hamburg Kashmir, founded in 1998.
Hamburg is one of Mongolia's leading Kashmir manufacturers with decades of expertise in fine fiber processing and value added production.
The company works across the journey from raw Mongolian Kashmir to finish products for international markets.
This is the journey from herd to wardrob, a journey that transforms Mongolia's natural heritage into products with value on the global stage.
Hambot represents the potential of Mongolia to move from being a source of natural fiber to becoming a creator of high value internationally recognized products.
Please welcome Hambook Kashmir, the final brand of the facie show.
Okay.
Sustainable Mongolian Kashmir Hamburg, the very last brand of this Tashi show.
Ladies and gentlemen, we once again bring together all eight brands of this show, all eight different creative perspectives to the stage.
Please welcome And round of applause goes to all models of the show.
Please welcome all the brands, all the models.
And there are La Kashmir, Ouma Kashmir, Nand Kashmir from China.
To Kashmir.
Toa brand from China.
Kim Kashmir, Kodi Kashmir, and at the Hama Kashmir.
Ladies and gentlemen, as we come to the end of Fation for and show, we have seen eight b, eight creative voices and many different interpretations of ation.
Despite all the difference this event has shown us that cation can create connections.
It can connect people with nature, can connect tradition with innovation.
It can connect local materials with global markets, and it can connect creativity with responsibility.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the United Nations Convention to combat desertification, the Sustainable Fishing Academy, the UN Alliance for Sustainable Fishing, the White Gold National Movement, and all our partners designers, brands, models, artists, production teams, and supporters who made tonight possible.
Also, our special thanks go to Mr.
Ricky Cage, UN CCD Goodwill Ambassador, and three time Grammy Award winner, whose original compositions provided the musical backdrop for this evening's face Show.
Thank you, Mr.
Cage.
Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, following this wonderful faciion show, it is a great pleasure to invite you to join us for reception.
Please join us for refreshments, conversation, and an opportunity to celebrate this evening together.
Thank you very much.
Enjoy this evening.
Ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy the rest of your evening after this fantastic fashion show.
We'd like to thank all the speakers and all the contributors who have graced the stage here today.
We'd like to thank the government of Luxembourg and the Sustainable Fiber Alliance for co hosting this evening with UNCCD and we'd like to thank all our champions, ambassadors, partners, speakers, and designers for their leadership and contribution.
I'd like to congratulate the team at UNCCD for their relentless work to make this wonderful show happen.
We now invite you to stay, connect, and continue the conversations over the reception.
Thank you, and once again, enjoy the rest of this evening.