Opening Press Conference of UNCCD COP17

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, members of the press, good afternoon and welcome to this opening press conference of the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to combat the certification.
UN CCD Cop 17.
My name is Tanya Scanlon, and I will be moderating today's press conference.
We have very distinguished speakers joining us this afternoon.
They will first make brief remarks and after that, we will be taking questions to the extent of the time available.
In terms of the housekeeping announcements, this press conference is being live streamed and it is also available in English, Mongolian, and French.
If you would like to follow the conference in one of these languages, please use these headsets.
Without further ado, allow me to introduce our speakers this afternoon.
First and foremost, we've got His Excellcy Sango Chir Sind, Minister of Environment and Climate Change of Mongolia and Chair of the National Organizing Committee for Cop 17.
Welcome.
We've got Her Excellcy Yasmin Flat, under Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to combat the certification.
We also joined here by His Excellency Osama Fakiha, Deputy Minister for Environment, Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and advisor to the UN CCD Cop 16 presidency.
Without further ado, I would like now to give the floor to His Excellcy Sadaguchir Singh, Minister of Environment and Climate Change of Mongolia.
Sir, the floor is yours, please.
He it ing.
Net nearby oriental around the to Horseman Tagg 7,000 the village of Jaban, Union Ma also Hamburg and Talon was under holistic vintages, backing, the holistic rogein, tetra, as, and trash, Talar Holbo, Ag aldtic metal language English about Jo.
The metage his A, Hooten orthotenbar, the ureter posts.
I manage S is hit join, an Ring, assault load Plisault load by, Matney hot in Burt, Tots assaulted Hilli, Arundel Toar Kort, Ts, gelsman Arundeltar, Boko Alves Ich, Irgand and Bk Tugech, Mongol Singh, Ts, Angsetman O João in Asat Haro, Tsat Otani, Potluck, doctor Hochul, doctor Sanchot Hult pine, Tetra Tau Hulish Wurtu.
Yang, he'll hit his taugon, middle aged, adult, talin, psoric butler, huge tag, alternated metallic shor, Engictal termina, huge, Tug, short, Ag object tags he'll say, A, Thank you very much, Minister Ting, for setting us for an exciting week ahead.
It is now my pleasure to invite UN CCD Executive Secretary Ms Mivad to outline her vision for this CP 17.
Madam Executive Secretary, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Zena.
Good afternoon, everyone.
I'd like really to thank the government of Mongolia, Minister Ten, for the tireless efforts to put this together and to have that interesting start this morning.
My thanks and appreciation definitely would go as well to Cop 16 presidency, doctor Fai, Minister Fuli, and all the team in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for their commitment, dedication, and leadership and turning point for the UNC City.
This COP is a very special cup.
We didn't officially, we started today with the opening remarks and handing over the presidency from Cp 16 to Cp 17 under the theme of restoring land, restoring hope, are three important things I'd like to lie here.
Saturday and Sunday, there were the informal regional consultation, but there was something that's very important and interesting that was happening in this country.
77% of the land of Mongolia is facing land degradation, and the economy here with all the number of people are really depending on the issue of range land.
What has been happening over the past few months is also important to say how we are here today.
The Silk Road caravan that was organized by the UNCCD with other partners like the FAO, and other resident coordinator was away through of 7,000 kilometers getting pastoralists around Eurasia to come here in Ambatar and we saw the parade today, it was very interesting.
But the interesting part how Mongolia took that very seriously in convening the global pastoralism gathering conference over three days, more than 100 countries, they came out with a declaration showing the needs, the priorities of the pastoralists around the world with an emphasis on a special declaration for women and I attended that.
That means that this Cp and the CCD will continue to be a human centered convention.
It will continue to serve the people and will continue to have women at the top of that.
This is the first thing.
The second message that we would like to achieve here is implementation.
How can we build upon the legacy that happened in Cop 16 with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on building on business for land, the private sector, how can we shift finance? All these are still important topics to move from just decisions to actual implementation on the ground.
For that, we have the land action agenda that would start the high level segment on the 24th of August with the Finance day.
But if we talk about range land and finance, we still need to talk that sustainable agriculture and agricultural land.
Most of the degradation that happens happens with human induced over agricultural land and the figures says that around 40% of the world land is already degraded and we have 60% that comes on agricultural land, which means that We will not in this process, pick and choose.
We will continue investing on healthy soil, whatever it will be in grassland, in rangeland, in different ecosystem.
The second one, we will continue to focus on people as a human centered convention.
The third one, we will continue to provide the enablers, which is mainly the access to finance, but we need to raise the bar and we need to find innovative mechanisms that would help us to do that.
What we're trying to do here with that opening, we heard the representative of the regional groups the last two days, we heard them today in the plenary.
All of them had mentioned one common thing that land is vital for food security and water, but they also mentioned that implementation should be the center of this.
I really hope that we would be able to make that happen collectively showed that multilateral system is not only about decisions on paper, but also about action on the ground and that will be done with the parties and other organization and definitely the media would be on top of that to raise our voices up there to the future generation.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Madam Executive Secretary.
Let's try again.
Let's try again.
That's much better.
Thank you very much, Madam Executive Secretary for sharing this vision for the Cp 17.
As we've just heard this morning, we saw the passing of the baton between Cop 16 presidency, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Mongolia.
It is now my pleasure to invite doctor Snahiha for the presidency of Cop 16 to share his views on the journey from Ra to Land Gutar, please.
Thank you and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, members of the press.
This is a very important day in the onuary of the UNCCD Convention.
First of all, we retreat our thanks to government of Mongolia for the great efforts to organize Cp 17 and the focus that they are putting.
This is extremely important.
CP 16 has been by many observers, considered as a historical turning point in the global focus on this convention.
And this convention focused on land degradation and drought.
And I think this is what was our main focus to raise global awareness of the importance of land, the centrality of land because our cities on land, our forests on land, our farms on land, the freshwater comes from land, our food from land.
99.7% of our calories come from land, 95% of our food come from land.
All our accessible freshwater is on land and the way we alter land and we deal with land, the way we raise our food, the way we use our building materials, our minerals come from land, our homes built from land, our clothes are actually coming from the land and our dependence on land.
But we have used it and we have been dealing with it as an infinite resources.
We couldn't understand the interlinkages between the land, the ocean, and the atmosphere, the climate.
This is what we succeeded in, I think Cp 16 to bring those relation together because if we degrade land, we impact food security and water security, but we impact biodiversity in a huge way.
60% of biodiversity loss now is attributed to habitat loss.
This is linked to land degradation.
And in IC and red list, 85% of the red list species are associated with habitat loss and a big percentage of that related to land degradation and drought.
Even with climate, the amount of carbon stored in land and the vegetation cover is three times the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.
And when we degrade land, we actually release carbon and we amplify the climate.
Even the conflicts, many of the conflicts over resources, migration is linked to drought.
About 3.5 billion people impacted by land degradation.
1.8 billion people are impacted by drought.
80% of the drought impacts are on farming communities, 85% of the people impacted by drought are living in low and lower middle income developing countries.
There is also a significant social dimension.
Now the task is huge.
We cannot continue business as usual.
This is the mission of this convention is to transform the way we manage land.
We need to shift to sustainable land management.
We need to accelerate land restoration.
As mentioned by Excellency the Secretary, we have about 1 billion hectare of commitment by countries.
But we have now between 1.5 to 2 billion hectas of degraded land.
Every year, we degrade about 100 million hectas of land.
That's include forest, range lands, agricultural lands, about 10 million hectas of forest are degraded every year.
And of course, range land is also very important for Mongolia is degraded also in substantial way.
This has significant impacts on food security and water security.
Today we are 8 billion people by 2050, it is expected that we exceed 10 billion people and we have 2 billion hectas of degraded land or at least the figure is between 1.5 to 2 billion depends on the reporting because 40% of the countries are not reporting their land degradation.
So the reported figure is about 1.5 billion.
Now this number is expected to double by 2050 if we continue business as usual, and that will be a major challenge for future generations.
So this is a very important convention.
It is central.
Our message is that we cannot achieve climate objective, we cannot achieve biodiversity objective.
We cannot achieve water and food security without acting on land.
That's why we are here.
That's why Cp 17 is very important to continue the momentum that we have in CP 16.
In CP 16, we had 37 resolution.
There was a resolution about sustainable agriculture land management, about food security, about indigenous people, about civil society.
Also made a big progress on the drought.
There were 35 initiatives were launched during CP 16 and the Riot action agenda.
Now we have around 105 initiatives and the Riot action agenda today.
And this is to really amplify the action and the involvement of all stakeholders.
The journey, we have a lot to go and a lot to do.
Everybody should be involved, governments, the private sector, the civil society, indigenous people, women and youth.
This is a global problem that cannot be solved without us working together.
And we count on Mongolian leadership and the spirit of collaboration of all parties so that we can strengthen the multilateral cooperation to have a better world for our future generation through acting on delivering on the objectives of this convention.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Deputy Minister Fakiha and we have now come to the end of the remarks.
So now we will come to taking the questions from the media present.
Just as a reminder, when you ask your question, please identify yourself and your media outlet and please indicate who of the speakers you would like to address your question to.
So please, if anyone would like to raise their hands for questions, I can see the lady in the front row in the pink jacket, please, Madam, the floor is yours.
Will please wait for the microphone and the lady will be with you momentarily.
Thank you.
Hello, this is the questions from Sina Finance, China, and I have questions for miss Fond and also for Mr.
Fakeha.
So my first question is Cop 16 launched the read Global Drought Resilience Partnership, mobilizing over $12 billion in pledges through the Lombard action agenda, what specific steps will you take at COP 17 to translate those commitments into measurable on the ground outcomes, especially for the most vulnerable affected countries? And also, my second question is China has hosted COP 13 and it has been almost ten years.
So how do you assess China's contribution in combating the diversification and land restoration from COP 13 to COP 17.
And how do you see China's future role in this area? Thank you.
I will answer the question on the RT Global drought Resilineiss Partnership.
Again, as I mentioned before, the drought impacts currently about 1.8 billion people mostly into low income and lower middle income developing countries.
The prevailing response to drought globally now is after it hits.
After the drought hits, community are impacted, we have water scarcity, we have food insecurity, even we have communities that their life fabric is being impacted, and then we have relief organization come and that's very important and novel work.
In the R global drought resilience Partnership, the aim was to start way below before the drought hits and readiness and through the drought resilience strategies and national plans through using early warning system, through integrating drought resilience into national development plans.
During COP 16, there were 12 billion for land degradation and drought.
For Rad partnership, specifically, we got until now about 2.2 billion and we are actually getting more and more support and we expect even more announcement in Cp 17 for more private sector participation in land degradation and drought.
We actually held the inaugural Conference in Germany in Cologne last summer where 64 countries met to decide on the governance of the initiative.
We also decided on the steering committee composition, including donor entities and representative from beneficiary countries and international organizations.
We have been working on the terms of references.
We held our first steering committee in Panama.
In December of 2025.
We will hold the second steering committee year in Olam atar and we expect the project to be launched early next year.
We will finalize the governance, the team of references, also the partners and the countries who are joining and we are seeing a great momentum.
We are seeing a financial institution coming forward.
We are seeing international organizations.
I think maybe doctor Amin also talk about the DRF, the Drought Resilience and Tank Impact Fund that will also be partnered with the A Global Drags Partnership.
Now, there is a partnership between RGDB and IR International Ts and Observatory.
Investor F because now it's used innovation and artificial intelligence to assess drought vulnerability and help countries develop drought resilience strategies and plans.
Really, we took tangible steps toward really implementing this important global initiative.
We are targeting around 73 developing countries who are most vulnerable to drought globally to benefit from this initiative.
So thank you very much, doctor Osema.
On the second question, China.
China had already, as you mentioned, hosted Cp 13 in 2017 in Ordos, and there has been a lot of effort China has been doing in order to meet the targets of this convention.
I just visited China last month on my way to Mongolia and three things that I would like to lay here.
First of all, being an active member to the convention, working both on restoration, but also on conservation is something that would be commended for this country, especially that the CCD is not only about restoring degraded land, it has conservation of different ecosystems that relates to land at the heart of this convention.
Secondly, the inclusion of the private sector.
Last month, China has already launched its national Business for Land Hub and the Business for Land Initiative is coming as part of Cp 16 results and we can see a lot of momentum, especially on the private sector.
I would like to invite you all to the event that will take place in the action dome on the 24th of August on the high level business forum because we're trying to increase the number of the private sector that participates in this convention and there is a number that exceeds around 700 or 800 that has been accredited to the process of the CCD between Cp 16 and Cp 17.
This is something that's very promising and interesting that we keep the momentum going.
The third thing about China is how the pastoralist and how the work is being done, part of our Silk Road caravan, but also part of our work that we do with the local communities and the indigenous people is working through their traditional knowledge and China as a country is trying to keep that up and being very active in our process.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
I believe we've got another question.
Lady in the front row, please.
Go ahead.
Thank you for accepting my request.
I'm representing Mongolian national broadcaster and I have one question for doctor Yasmin.
What is the biggest challenge today in tackling desertification, land degradation, and drought? Are there any regions that have been particularly successful in addressing these challenges that could serve as a model for others? Thank you.
Thank you very much.
The biggest challenge is to accelerate the implementation at speed that would help us restore the 1 billion by 2030 and to have more access to finance through innovative mechanisms because the usual ODE and the usual business scenario will not really be in our favor and that's why we're expanding the convention to go beyond parties to non state actors, to local communities, indigenous people, private sector.
And the regions that each region has its specificity.
I would talk about Africa where I belong is very specific in the impact of climate change land degradation and drought, but also the solutions that come from the ground, for example, watershed management, how They are tackling land and water nexus, how they are fighting desertification is a story to tell.
In this region in Asia, I would go far away, not very much far away.
The kingdom itself has just declared the restoration of the 1 million hectare after Cp 16 with the technology, even though the kingdom is a country that has already water scars in Mongolia itself, how they have been trying when I was moving in different parts for my field visit, I learned a lot.
I learned that the government and the authorities regulate the season of the pastoralists and how they move from one place to the other in order to ensure that there is food for the livestock and how they are trying to restore other lands.
A very clear example of that.
Innovative Finance.
The Prime Minister today in the opening of the CP has already announced the Green Lab National Initiative and how every part, including the banking sector, the private sector, the Business Council of Mongolia, is part of that.
These are all our successful examples and solutions from different parts of the world.
I'm sure there are others in Europe and in Gurak and in other in the Arab States, but that is for the sake of time.
I gave very quick examples from the two Cup presidency Mongolia and the Kingd of Saudi Arabia.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Madam Executive Secretary, we've got a question from a gentleman in the second row, and then I will come to the lady also in the second row with the microphone, please.
Sir, you have floor.
Okay.
Good afternoon.
My name is António from Monsa Mongolia's National News Agency.
My question is also for doctor Yasmin.
Cop 16 Riyadh ended without a binding agreement on drought.
What has to happen in Olamba for Cop 17 to close that gap and what can Mongolia help to ensure to close that gap? Thank you very much.
We heard this morning, first of all, parties that mentioned drought and I say the readiness to engage in constructive dialogue to get out a drought decision with focus on implementation.
We heard that and that is a very good momentum and thanks to Cp 16 presidency because they did not just sit tight handed after Cp 16, but they started the informal process that's called Tal.
In Arabic, it means positive optimism.
That has helped to build the trust and have a discussion ongoing till we reach today here in Ambatar.
We heard also the Cop 17 president, Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister Butmou when she said today, we will try to reach consensus and we will understand that there is disagreement, there are different views, but the role of Cop 17 presidency is to build consensus and facilitate discussion till a drought decision would be gaveled.
We hope at the level of the UN CCD Secretariat that the parties would reach consensus on a drought decision that would show the urgency of the matter, the scale.
But at the other side, we are ready to provide the space for consultation, for facilitation, but we are also ready with the Cp 16 presidency, with the Luxembourg to provide the finance needed for drought management and converting the plant into actual implementation for the ground.
That's why I'm saying this COP is for implementation.
Let's keep our finger crossed that we would have both the decision and the implementation.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I would like to ask the microphone for the lady in the second row, please, if you could raise your hand so that you can be identified, please.
There we go.
The microphone is coming.
Please introduce yourself and the floor is yours, please.
Thank you very much.
My name is Johanna Michel.
I'm from German media Tags speak background.
I have the following question to the Minister of Environment of Mongolia.
How do you balance food production on the one hand and protection of range lands on the other hand in Mongolia.
Does Mongolia want to produce more food by itself? I mean, do you want to increase your local production? Is that a problem to phase of the protection of range lands? Is there any contradiction? That's my question.
Thank you very much.
Thin skin, dorsal brow, nets called large bot whose knee could take to move to re the toss chin Man helix chosen, then, the Hutton.
No g Nigarn kilter, Ma Kat, Nigra Celtic, Tras Ma whose new will leak, who Jewish hit wasted, Katric Habers, I engineer Carlton, stick.
Train, Match, chacha, Trap Katrina Tag Juno and Katrina Mach and Coparts with atras, Hana, Hans Han No James at Ngo, Terton Kuni of cobalt, pets and water, inlin bournt, tint, oh Tin, Tarson Butler whose knee range and think So join.
In Yuma and the salts.
Thank you very much.
Minister Teng, I believe we've got one question from the lady in the second row, and I think we will have just time for one or two maximum more questions.
I will come to the lady first, and then I see one hand here.
Please go ahead, Madam.
Thank you.
Good afternoon to every one of you.
My name is Zaya.
I represent TingerTV, which is a national TV channel based in Mongolia.
My question is for the Madam Executive Secretary Yasminfeld and Cop 16 President Osama Fakiha.
So as you already know, we have seen some major changes in the government for the past two years since the last COP, we have seen three different ministers for the environment and climate change in Mongolia.
So what has it been? How has it been to work with a government that kept changing in the past two years? Has it posed any issues for the preparation of COP, or if not, what were the main challenges for the preparation? I take this question, although that I have been almost a year in the Secretariat, and what you're mentioning is true and it's happening, but two things that we have seen and my colleagues have communicated that as well, that the president of Mongolia is very much interested on hosting that can was taking this very serious also for the life of the pastoralist and the livelihood of his people first and the second thing is I saw myself when things changed in the government, the current minister and I have been seeing this away from even the media interview that we're having today.
Minister Send has been day and night looking at everything prepared in this cup.
I can give so many examples of that.
The day I came here a month ago in the venue and things were almost done, he was very meticulous on even how the restrooms are being designed and how things are being put together.
Thanks to the government of Mongolia and thanks to Mr.
Singh and to the other Ministers of environment who made that happen.
First for whole of the world, all parties to the convention, but also for the Mongolian people too.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I believe we have one question here that has been waiting very patiently, Madam, please go ahead.
Okay.
Thank you.
I'm representing from Eagle News, is the local media.
I have a question about the during CP 16 partic pledged $12 billion in funding and of which Saudi Arabia fulfilled its $2 billion funding commitment.
But what should Mongolia focus on attract investment and implement the CP 17 initiatives effectively for Yasmin and Osama? Thank you.
First of all, that announcement, 12 billion came from the private sector mainly.
This is very important that the private sector should be part of the solution because as you know, the agriculture, the business, the food security, the building material, the mining, the fashion industry, they all depends on land.
And they contribute those businesses who does not practice good practices will contribute to degradation.
So the important achievement, in my opinion, it is not only the amount of money, but the beginning of changing of attitude of the business community to be on board.
And second, also, I think as important as the financial announcement is the Business for Land Initiative.
I think now we have 300 businesses or so globally.
We have some of the global fashion industry companies, global food security, food companies, and global agriculture companies, and others coming really to be on board because still now, about 55% of the global GDP depends on the natural capital.
This, by the way, a few years ago, it was about 85% now because of the information technology and a lot of services that are being done IT services that is growing in financial dimension that decrease, but still we rely on the natural capital and especially the land to support us in many in in many things in the food in the housing, in the dressing and in the water and everything.
This is very important.
Now we are seeing also more allocation.
Jeff, the global environmental facility now allocated their highest, maybe one third now of their allocation is allocated to land degradation and drought.
We see now more and more developmental banks are expected to make some announcement now in CP 17 to come forward.
What we are saying that the participation of the private sector and the investment in land restoration is not only important for the environment and for the people, but it's also important for the business itself.
Because if we continue this way, the businesses themselves will have difficulties into their production and supply chains because all the lands are degraded.
We we lose about 24 billion tons of soil every year.
It takes nature's hundreds of years to create 1 centimeter of soil.
There is so many statistics how we are degrading land.
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization say that we are losing 1 trillion because of degrading agricultural land.
There is a lot of statistics there about the impact.
We cannot continue business as usual.
There has to be a major shift in the way the private sector do their business.
We need to shift to sustainable management, we need to shift to more investment in restoration.
We need to shift to a proactive response to drought.
My country is one of the most dry countries in the world.
And the way we did is by integrating innovation and technology into the strategic developmental plans of the country.
And now we really seeing a lot of good results like we have reduced the energy consumption for water production significantly by 80%, the production productivity using innovation.
There is a lot of innovation there to produce more crops with less water penalty, with more productivity.
So we cannot do business as usual.
We have to change the way we deal with land.
We need to have a better understanding of our footprint on land and as government policies as well as business practices has to be changed.
Thank you very much for these responses.
I believe this is what we have time for this afternoon.
I would like to once again to thank our distinguished speakers for taking the time for taking the questions.
As you've heard, we will have an exciting program for the media attending this Cop 17.
There will be daily briefings.
We will be bringing you a lot of speakers covering various aspects, and we will definitely do our best with the team that is working on both the Cop 17 side and the UNCD Secretariat side to keep you up to date with the developments.
Once again, thank you very much.
Have a good afternoon and have a successful Cop 17.