High Level Dialogue: From Ambition to Action: Delivering Rio Synergies Across the Triple COP Year - UNCCD COP17

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
It's so wonderful to see everybody in this room, and we have a fabulous session for you, which will be kicking off in a matter of minutes.
In order to understand where we are in terms of our speakers and our dignitaries, I would invite you to please begin to take your seats.
That way we can gauge who is in the room and when we can begin.
Obviously, you understand we have to wait for our main open remote speakers.
But ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your patience.
And please, could you take your seats? We will begin in a timely manner.
Thank you very much, indeed.
Thank you.
So I'll just keep my yeah.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, please make your way to your seats.
We will begin in one minute's time.
Please make your way to your seats.
Thank you very much indeed.
Thank you.
Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, a very warm welcome.
We meet at the perfect confluence, I think.
It's a rare sequence that is taking place here in Olambata.
We have the UN CCD Cop 17 that is currently taking place.
We have in Yerevan, the CBD, Cop 17.
Of course, in Antalia in Turka, the UNF AAC Cop 31 will also be held.
I think the world is spoiled this year.
It's just been a perfect alignment.
Today, though, is about keeping that journey connected.
But rather than just talking about it, we want everything and today and the UN CCD ambitions to be practical.
Enough ambitions, this is about action.
So this dialogue is jointly convened by Mongolia as presidency of the UN CCD Cop 17, Armenia as the incoming presidency of the CBD Cop 17, and Turka as incoming presidency of the UNF Triple C Cop 31.
Our focus today is pretty simple.
It's always the simplest things though, that are the hardest to deliver.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, my delegates, is to answer the question of how countries and partners can make existing climate biodiversity, but also those land ambitions that we've heard so much about work together, but work in a way that is effective without creating yet another layer of process.
So just to let you know how today is going to go, as you are aware, and you would expect, we do have simultaneous interpretation, which is available in Mongolian, Turkish, and also in French.
I would like now also to kindly ask all speakers to keep to their time that has been allotted to them.
I'm sure you will hear this repeated throughout the session.
We have so many speakers we will be hearing from, so every voice can be heard.
Please respect your time slot.
At this point, I would normally give some context.
As an introduction.
But when it comes to land and the o synergies, I am going to be passing that baton on, that task to a far more qualified speaker who has impressed me over the last week and a half with her passion and her determination in delivering her mandate as leader of the UN CCD.
That will follow shortly.
But to get us there and to set the scene, And to open our conversation, we invite you to watch a short film that has been inspired by Eb.
Now, this is the traditional Turkish art of marbling.
It is distinct.
Those elements come together whilst each retains its own character.
Please play the video.
Thank you.
When the rains are delayed in one place, it is not only the soil that is left thirsty, a river slows, a forest falls silent.
A species begins to search for a new place to call home because in nature, no change happens in isolation.
Climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation.
These three crises may appear separate, but they are all part of the same living system.
That is why their solutions must be addressed together.
The Rio Conventions set out a shared vision for the future to advance climate adaptation, protect biodiversity, and combat land degradation.
Today, Rio Synergy is strengthening cooperation across these interconnected goals.
Through joint planning, finance, data sharing, monitoring, and capacity building, we can strengthen climate resilience, protect nature, and accelerate land restoration.
2026 presents a unique opportunity to advance this approach.
The conferences of the parties to all three RIO conventions are taking place within the same year.
The presidencies of Mongolia, Armenia, and Turkey are coming together to advance collective action.
As one of Turkey cop 31 action agenda initiatives, Rio synergy is turning this opportunity into concrete action.
The high level presidency dialogues and the technical Dialogue series bring together political will, technical expertise, and a shared vision.
The elements of this collective transformation come together across three cities and in Oulan Batar, biodiversity in Yerevan, climate in Antalia.
And at the heart of this journey is action because what lies ahead is not three separate agendas, but one shared future.
Three conventions, one vision, collective action.
Rio synergy from vision to action.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome miss Yasmin Fouage, United Nations Under Secretary-General and the Executive Secretary of the UN CCD to deliver our welcome remarks.
Executive Secretary, the floor is yours.
Thank you very much.
Good morning, everyone.
My dear cop president.
Thank you for being here with me.
And other Cup presidents from other Cup from Armenia and Turkey.
It's a pleasure to have you and my dear brother Simon and my dear sister Astrid, I will not give a lot of an opening remarks, but what I want to say here is in Alamatar here we're starting the Rio To year where we would have the and Cup and then the biodiversity, and we will finalize with Atalia beautifully in the climate Cup.
There has been years when all of the financial institutions and within our processes, discussion around synergies, what we saw in the video is an integrated platform of that nature has something different than what we say in our rooms and in the negotiations and in our CP nature, and people would like to tell us that it is happening, it's integrated and the solutions could be really met if that would be a one track of looking at how best can we do that.
And is at the center of that discussion and that can really help to bring this together because that's the natural infrastructure for food, for water, for shelter, for our industry, for the species, for the institute, for the exit conservation, whatever, you name it within that.
This does not mean that land is the central or the overriding process, but it could be a good opportunity of liking into that.
A couple of implementation here in Alambatar, I would say three main messages.
The first message is coming from a government position.
Countries are really fed up of working more on plans and on reporting and on accessing resources from different financial mechanisms, and yet, problems are not solved.
We need to look on how best can that be implemented and relieving the member states from the different bureaucratic process because it is for them really very hectic.
At the end of the day for them, when I used to submit that, I would have to say the assignment because that's the thing that was very near happening before I left my position, an updated NDC for the National Committee for climate change and that means that the climate change is uplifted higher than the other two agendas at the national level.
The ministers there told me we have been sitting here for six years and we have been every time submitting plans and plans and reports and things like that because that's the process that we went to.
I think that if those plans would help the country have more national policy coherence and more national enabling environment, that would be a first starting thing that we would like to see.
Here, I would like really to express my thanks and appreciation to both Astrid and Simon and the Global Environment facility for the first project that we're implementing policy coherence on food security that we have just finalized the preparation last month because this is something that is tangible, this is something that relates to the people and this is something a decision maker at the country level would say, I'm doing something useful and conveying my commitment under the convention, but something relates to the people that at the end of the day, this multilateral process should be serving them and not only serving politicians or the decision makers on the governments or only the papers that we would be submitting from one cup to the other.
The second thing that I believe would be very useful I for me synergies.
We've started with the joint lion group.
We do meet, we have the database, and we're trying to pull things further.
But having action on the ground would be the thing that I feel would come out of these three cups to move the needle and moving the needle, if at least we got three countries out of the region by the end of this cup, which means that we would have 15 countries that are really believing into implementation, we would be moving the needle.
Last but not least, energy within the national development process, or what is there in the different financial mechanisms.
Last, the only way to do it is to engage the private sector and what the CCD is trying to do right now is to pull the private sector at different fronts but much more on the drought issue, making an investment pipeline on those topics.
Thank you.
Madam Executive Secretary, thank you very much indeed.
Thank you.
I now invite Her Excellency Bsat Se Batmonk, who is the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia and the UN CCD Cop 17 President, to speak on behalf of our host presidency, Your Excellency.
Okay.
Thank you, dear.
Excellency' distinguished representatives of the presidencies of the Rio conventions.
Ministers and heads of delegation, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.
On behalf of the government of Mongolia and the presidency of UNCCD Cop 17, it's my great pleasure welcoming you to this high level dialogue.
We meet at a critical moment for international environment Environmental cooperation, climate change, biodiversity, loss, desertification, land degradation and drought are deeply interconnected.
They affect the same landscapes, communities, and economies.
More than 40% of the world's land is degraded affecting their livelihoods, food, and the water security of over 3 billion people.
These challenges remind us environmental degradation is not only an ecological issue.
It is also a development, economic and human security challenge.
No country can address these challenges in isolation.
Their transboundary nature requires coordinated policies, integrated financing, and stronger international partnerships.
At the same time, land is where many of these challenges converge and where many of the solutions begin.
Healthy land stores carbon, supports biodiversity, strengthens food and water security and sustains livelihoods.
Restoring degraded rangelands, forests, wetlands, and watersheds can therefore generate multiple benefits across all three Rio conventions.
Mongolia does not view greatest synergy among the Rio conventions as an effort to merge their mandates.
Rather, we see it as a practical way to implement their respective commitments more coherently, efficiently, and at greater scale by better aligning our nationally determined contributions, national biodiversity strategies and action plans and land degradation neutrality targets.
We can reduce duplication, make better use of limited resources and generate multiple benefits from a single investment.
This integrated approach can also improve access to finance by helping countries design projects that deliver measurable outcomes across all three conventions.
As we embark on a shared marathon across the three REO conventions, our success will not be measured by the progress of individual tracks, but by our collective ability to reach the finish line together.
Most importantly, these benefits must reach the people who manage and depend on the land.
Pastoralists, farmers, indigenous peoples, and local communities are not merely beneficiaries.
They are custodians of natural resources, holders of invaluable knowledge, and essential partners in decision making.
Women and youth should also be recognized as key agents of change whose innovation, leadership, and stewardship are indispensable for achieving long term sustainability.
The Belen joint statement has provided an important foundation for a shared political vision.
And reinforce the need for greater coherence across the REA conventions.
The three cop year of 2026 now gives us a unique opportunity to translate that vision into action, beginning here in Lambata at UNCCD Cop 17.
Carrying this momentum forward to an Cop CBD Cop 17 and onward to entirely for UNFCCC Cop 31.
This journey should not be seen as three separate conferences, but as one continuous pathway towards a common destination, healthier land, stable climate, thriving biodiversity, and resilient communities.
Each COP has its own mandate, but the challenges we address are deeply interconnected, and so must be our responses.
Our task is clear.
We must place land at the center of integrated action on climate and biodiversity, better align national planning policies, Data and monitoring, mobilize investments that deliver multiple benefits and ensure that cooperation remains inclusive and responsive to the priorities of developing landlocked and drought affected countries.
As the first leg of this three CP journey, Lambatar has an important responsibility to build momentum.
What we advance He should provide a strong foundation for the discussions in Yerevan, while the progress achieved in both Lambata and Yerevan should help carry great ambition and practical cooperation forward to Atala.
If we succeed 2026, we'll remember it not simply as a year of three consecutive cops, but as the year when we moved from individual action to collective effort from commitments to implementation and from words to tangible results.
The marathorn begins here in Ubi, but the finish line belongs to all of us.
Let us move forward together from Lambata to Yerevan, and Dia with determination, solidarity, and the shared responsibility to protect our planet and leave a resilient, peaceful and prosperous future for generations to come.
I thank you.
Excellency, thank you very much.
Indeed.
Thank you.
Let us carry the sequence to Yerevan, as we were just hearing there from Her Excellency.
I'm pleased to invite Mr.
Andronik Grigoryan representing the government of Armenia and also the incoming presidency of CBD Cop 17.
Your Excellency, you have 3 minutes.
Thank you.
Excellencies, distinguished delegates.
At the outset, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change of the Republic of Turkey for the excellent organization of this high level dialogue.
The 2026 Triple Kp year gives us a unique opportunity to sustain the political momentum towards enhancing synergies among the Rio conventions and more importantly, to translate this momentum into practical action.
Blem joint statement has provided an important political foundation in this regard.
It reflects a shared commitment by the current and incoming presidencies to greater complementarity, coherence, and coordinated action across the trial conventions.
The responsibility before us is to build upon this political commitment and ensure that it leads to achieving tangible results.
A key milestone during this year will be the first global review under the coming Montreal Global biodiversity Framework, which will be one of the central elements of CBD Cop 17 in Yerevan.
The global review will provide an important opportunity not only to assess our collective progress, but also to identify the lessons that can help accelerate implementation.
As reflected in the draft Global report on collective progress, one of the key lessons emerging is the need for stronger cooperation among the Rio Conventions and other multilateral environmental agreements, together with more integrated and coordinated action across sectors and among stakeholders.
Climate change, biodiversity laws, and land degradation are inherently interconnected challenges, and our policy responses should increasingly reflect this reality.
Armenia's own experience demonstrates the importance of integrating these agendas into national planning and implementation.
Better alignment of climate, biodiversity, and land priorities can help countries make more effective use of their limited institutional and financial capacities, reduce unnecessary duplication and reporting burdens and ultimately strengthen implementation on the ground.
This context, Armenia welcomes the ongoing work on the multi level roadmap on Rio convention synergies.
We look forward to advancing this discussion further during CBD Cop 17 in year one.
We see the roadmap as a practical instrument for identifying concrete entry points for cooperation at the global, regional and national levels while building upon the substantial work already undertaken by parties, conventions, secretariats, and partners.
At the same time, we should ensure that this work remains practical and focused.
The objectives should not be to create additional layers of processes, but to make existing ones more coherent and effective.
Where reporting systems can be better aligned, where scientific information can be shared, where capacity building can serve several agendas simultaneously, or where financial resources can support integrated solutions.
These are precisely the areas where synergies can deliver real added value.
As the incoming presidency of CBD Cop 17, Armenia is committed to carrying this momentum forward to Yerevan and to working closely with CP's presidencies to ensure continuity throughout the Triple CP year.
We believe this is a valuable opportunity to move beyond political ambition, deliver stronger, more coherent, and more effective implementation across the Rio conventions.
I thank you.
Excellency, thank you very much.
Let us go now to Antalia.
We're looking ahead to Antalia.
It's my honor to introduce a video message from His Excellency, Mr.
Murad Kurum, who is the Minister of Environment for Urbanization and Climate Change and also, of course, the Republic of Turkea and the UNF AAC Cop 31 President designate.
The video, please.
Thank you.
Sb.
Your Excellency's, distinguished guests, dear friends, ladies and gentlemen, I greet you all warmly and with respect on behalf of myself and my country with utmost affection.
First of all, I would like to express my regret at not being with you today.
I thank the government of Mongolia for hosting this important summit and my esteemed counterpart President of CP 17, President Bsggbkmg Es Tur Kia, we have prepared intensively for CP 17 with all our organizations throughout the conference.
We will be delighted to share with you our work, our country because our country has carried experiences on the certification and land and it will be our pleasure to share our reviews with you.
Dear friends as well as known certification on land degradation together with climate change.
Have long been among the priority issues for Turkey.
Our country hosted Cp 12 in 2015 in Ankara.
I Ankara, we contributed to incorporating into the process of goal of achieving the land degradation neutral world by 2030.
Then we launched the Ankara Initiative.
We provided support especially to developing countries in setting their targets and implementing those targets.
Today, we are delighted that more than 100 countries have achieved these previously set targets and we are delighted by that.
Of course, we also know that climate change, biological diversity, loss, and land degradation are not separate standalone challenges or problems or issues today, the forest fires occurring in various locations of the world actually indicate the fact that more than 1 million species are under the extinction risk and almost 40% of the world's land is under the risk of degradation has already degraded.
This conveys a clear message to us, we must take faster and stronger steps.
To this end, we must increase cooperation among the Ro conventions and translate this cooperation into concrete results on the ground.
It's Tk, we have taken an important step in this direction.
We signed the Rio Synergy Protocol.
This approach is also one of the core principles of our CP 31 presidency.
We regard the Cp 31 process as a comprehensive process bringing together political leadership, multilateral negotiations, and implementation.
We have built our presidency on three fundamental approaches, dialogue, consensus, and action.
Through dialogue, we will bring countries together around the same table.
Through consensus, we will strengthen our common will and through action, we will translate this will into concrete results.
We want action now, not words.
In the Cp 31 action agenda that we prepared and drafted with this understanding, we have identified our priority areas ranging from clean energy transition to zero waste to circular economy, from climate resilient cities to food security and sustainable agriculture from green industrialization to real synergies.
We have set out our 2035 implementation targets.
With the climate implementation Bridge or bridge in short, we also aim to help climate finance reach the field faster and more effectively, reach the ground faster and more effectively.
I would like to say that we believe CP 31 will be a historic turning point and it will be a great pleasure for us to see you to host you in Antalia.
Let us meet in November in our Antalia, one of the world's most beautiful cities and with this, I greet you all with affection and respect.
Minister Kurum there.
To set out the next stage of Cop 31 and its presidency process on the Rio synergies, please welcome Her Excellency, miss Fatma Varan, the Deputy Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change of the Republic of Turka and also the Cop 31, Chief Executive Officer.
Your Excellency, the floor is yours.
Thank you very much.
Honorable ministers, deputy ministers, distinguished Secretaries General, esteemed representatives of international organizations, and distinguished guests.
It is a great honor and pleasure to be here with you at this podium at the first Cp of the 2026 Triple Cp year.
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the government of Mongolia, the UNCCD Secretariat, and all our partners and their people for hosting us in such a great nature and country.
Also, I would like to express my gratitude to the UNCCD Secretariat and all partners who have contributed to the hosting of CP 70.
Distinguished participants, today, we're Not only here to assess cooperation among the three RIA conventions, but also to open the door to a new era in which we will transform the political will that we have patiently built up over many years into concrete and measurable results.
As we enter the second decade of the Paris Agreement, our objective is clear, mobilize finance, make technology accessible, and make climate action tangible in daily lives.
This is the precise vision of Cop 31 presidency, moving from commitment to implementation.
For that reason, to merge negotiations and implementations.
From the very first day we have established our process on the principles of dialogue, consensus, and action.
Our Cop 31 climate action agenda is the product of this belief.
Clean energy, circular economy, resilient cities, food security, green industrialization, oceans and besides health, Rio convention synergy is one of the main topics of this agenda.
We do know that climate, biodiversity, and land commitments and implementing them together, realizing them together cannot be isolated from each other.
When doing so, our aim is not to create new commitments, but to make these commitments coherent, efficient and effective.
Distinguished guests.
We laid the foundation for this vision in last main Atalia where we brought all stakeholders together around the same table.
Today we are having this dialogue in On atar It is the step that we have made something concrete.
The technical meeting held here in Lobatar last week was attended by representatives from 24 countries, the European Union and international organizations.
The common message was clear.
We want bridges between existing mechanisms, not new institutions, strong local participation, not new reporting burdens.
So parties are expecting this.
No one wants to waste their time, efforts, or resources.
Everyone wants rapid, effective, and tangible results.
This shared determination is our most valuable asset.
In this regard, we are placing land degradation neutrality, the development of carbon sinks, and climate resilient agricultural R&D studies at the center of our priorities.
Distinguished participants.
2026 AA COPY offers us a unique opportunity.
This journey begins today in Mongolia and it will mature at the Cop 17 biodiversity Conference in Armenia in October and it will turn into action at Cop 31 in Antalia, which will be hosted by Turkey.
This is not a new initiative.
It is a genuine platform for sharing experiences and solidarity operating under the umbrella of a working group.
It is a completely voluntary form of cooperation that supports each country in setting its own priorities and charting its own roadmap.
This world is our common, shared home.
Leaving it to future generations clean, safe, and livable is our most fundamental shared responsibility.
That is why we have taken the first steps with experienced partners such as the UNCCD, the G 20 Global Land Initiative, and the IUCN.
We are in close contact with the Secretariat of the three Ria conventions and with the current and upcoming incoming cop presidencies, by expanding the structure, we will present it to the whole world at Cp 31.
The success of CP 31 will be measured not only by the decisions taken in Antalia but also by the trust we built step by step from today until Antalia, the partnerships we put into practice, the finance we mobilize, and the concrete visible results that countries achieve on the ground.
Today's high level dialogue is one of the milestones of this journey.
I invite you all to become active partners in the synergy journey, which begins in Olan Batar and will reach its culmination in Antalia and I express my gratitude for your contributions and strong cooperation.
Now, I will stop.
Of course, we have a lot of participants here.
Without further ado, I would like to give the very first floor to So the president of negotiations for Cop 31 is Australia.
So I would like to give the floor to the Australian representative, Andrew Berryman.
Vanck.
Thank you for sharing your vision as we move ahead to Atalia Cop 31.
Let me just describe what is about to happen.
We are now transiting to our dialogue, the Rio synergies leadership dialogue.
We have lots of speakers.
2 minutes, please.
Very quick reminder before I pass the button back to my colleague, the Deputy Minister, Fatma Varak, who is going to be guiding our roundtable exchange today.
Deputy Minister, The floor is yours to guide the dialogue.
If you could just bear with me, ladies and gentlemen, let me just make sure we have no technical difficulty.
Are we ready to go? Wonderful.
The floor is yours.
Thank you very much indeed.
I our distinguished host, Anne MC.
Lady is not wearing the hat set, so she did not hear that I already gave the floor to our distinguished partner, Australia.
Andrew, please take over.
T.
I would like to begin by reflecting on the strong signal our discussion today sends about our shared determination to address the interlinked challenges facing land, biodiversity, and climate in tandem.
I also wish to recognize and thank Mongolia, Armenia, and Turkey for convening this inaugural high level dialogue on Rio synergies.
This discussion comes at a critical moment.
Across the world, communities are experiencing the interconnected impacts of desertification, land degradation, and drought, biodiversity loss, and climate change.
At the same time, we are operating in a period of tightening fiscal constraints.
This reality demands that we work not only harder but smarter.
Delivering on our RIO commitments will require holistic solutions, whole of society approaches, and stronger coordination across institutions, sectors, and stakeholders.
Fortunately, we are not starting from scratch.
We can draw upon the best available science, leverage existing mechanisms like the joint liaison group, and build upon our collective experience and expertise across conventions.
Using these resources to implement synergies, we can deliver more with less.
Australia is pleased to be working closely with Turkey to deliver an impactful UNF AAC Cop 31.
As president of negotiations for CP 31, Australia continues to seek a better understanding of where parties and the broader international community see the strongest opportunities to advance RIO convention synergies while respecting the distinct mandates of each convention.
Discussions with parties have shown us there is strong interest in making substantive progress.
We encourage parties to bring this energy and collaborative spirit to cop 31.
Together, we have an opportunity to strengthen cooperation, accelerate implementation, and deliver outcomes that match the scale of the challenge before us.
Thank you.
I would like to thank distinguished everyone and without further ado, I'd like to leave the floor to Dear Paula Capabna, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change of Brazil.
Good morning.
Thank you, S.
It's a great pleasure to join you in Lambata at the beginning of a unique political opportunity, the 2026 Tipple Cp year.
For Brazil, this discussion has a special historical meaning.
You are proud to have hosted the Ho Earth Summit in 1992, where the three HEU conventions were born.
And we are equally proud to have hosted cop 30 in ballet in the herds of the Amazon, where synergies among climate, biodiversity, and land were placed at the center of the implementation agenda.
More than three decades after here, we must now turn the shared vision in a coordinated action.
The Beeline Joint statement was an important political step, but synergies cannot remain a diplomatic concept or became a bureaucratical exercise.
They must produce miserable results on the ground.
In the coming years, we should create three practical priorities.
First, Countries should better align their indices, biodiversity strategies, and land degradation neutrality targets together.
These instruments should reinforce one another while respecting the distinctive mandates of each convention and national circumstances.
Second, we must build integrated portfolio of projects.
A restoration project can simultanly reduce emissions, cons biodiversity, improve water availability, and generate income.
Recognizing these multiple benefits can attract a broader range of public, private, and multilateral resource.
Third, finance must become more coordinate, predictable, and accessible.
Developing countries cannot deliver increasingly ambitious results without adequate finance, technology transfer, capacity building, and institutional support.
Brazil has sought to contribute through innovative instruments such as tropical forests forever facility designed to generate long term resource for countries that conserve and restore their tropical forests.
Brazil is ready to work with the three presidencies, the secretariats, parties, and other partners to turn the Triple Cp a practical roadmap for implementation through the end of this decade.
Hi, in 1992, the three conventions were born.
In Blaine at cop 30, we renewed their common purpose.
Now, we must make this synergy real.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Now, without further ado, I would like to leave the floor.
To Dear Timmy Dooley from Ireland, Distinguished Minister of Agriculture, food, and maritime affairs.
The floor is yours.
Ireland strongly welcomes the focus on practical implementation as we begin this triple COP year.
The challenges we're addressing climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation, desertification and drought are incorporated on the ground and they're very much interconnected.
Our implementation needs too to be interconnected.
Already have a strong foundation, national commitments, the Rio convention process, technical expertise, partnerships, and financing mechanisms.
The priority now should be to connect these existing resources more efficiently rather than creating new layers of architecture.
From an implementation perspective, I see three priorities.
First, start with national priorities.
Countries should identify where existing climate, biodiversity, and land commitments can be delivered together.
Second, connect implementation partners.
Governments need easier access to the technical expertise, knowledge, and capacity building, and partnerships that already exist.
Third, connect ambition with finance.
Integrated approaches should help us make better use of available resources and develop our stronger pipelines of projects that deliver multiple benefits.
The proposed Rosynergies Group for action can play a useful role if it remains practical, voluntary, and country led.
Its value should be in connecting countries to what already exists, helping overcome implementation barriers and sharing approaches that can be adapted and scaled.
Triple COP year gives us a unique opportunity to maintain political momentum from Una Batar through Yervan and Aatalia.
We should also judge its success not by the number of new initiatives announced, but by whether countries are better able to implement their existing commitments.
We move from Cp 17 towards CP 31.
Let us make this a working process.
Identify practical barriers, connect countries with solutions, mobilize finance, and learn from what is already working.
Ireland is ready to contribute to that effort.
Ultimately, Rio convention synergies must be about delivering better outcomes for people, land, climate, and biodiversity and delivering them on the ground.
Thank you very much.
C Dooley.
Thank you very much, Mr.
Dooley.
Now, I would like to leave the floor to Climate Change, Environment and Energy Minister, Mr.
Ali Sharif from Maldives.
The floor is yours.
Beginning, I didn't get the translation actually on my.
Thank you, Chair.
Excellencies, distinguished presidencies of the RIO conventions, colleagues.
Maldives welcomes this dialogue and politically continue its demonstrates across the AA Cp this year.
We welcome the Belin joint statement, and we welcome the initiation of the Cop 31 presidency process towards a Rio synergies group for action.
For small island states, climate Climate, biodiversity, and land are not separate issues.
For small island developing states, integrated implementation across.
Biodiversity and land is not a matter of institutional convenience.
It's about collaboration, sharing knowledge and resources, working together towards a more holistic approach towards addressing the implementation of the Three Convention.
In Maldives, land degradation is driven overwhelmingly by sea level rise, coastal erosion, saline intrusion, and the depletion of the freshwater resources.
These are climate driven processes that manifest as land degradation, compounded by the loss of mangroves and reef systems that once buffered our islands.
Our experience is that the framework indicators and financing instruments for each convention remains calibrated largely in isolation from one another and within UN CCD specifically calibrated for dry land and deserification contexts that do not reflect the small island reality.
This is not a hypothetical gap.
The intergovernmental science policy platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services, the IP base, Nexus assessment has already flagged the adverse effects that soil policy approaches which have on seeds.
We see this dialogue and the proposed Rio synergy group for action as a genuine opportunity to close that gap in practice, not only in principle.
We would encourage the proposed Reo synergies group for action and the post 2030 frameworks under the discussion this week to draw on tools that already exist to support coherence, including the UNFCC Article 4 0.1, adaptation planning, and Blue green finance mechanisms such as the F eight, Blue and Green Islands Program, and to make sure seed specific degradation pathways sits along dry lands pathways within shared indicators in the financing categories.
Colleagues, I think this is really high time that as which was mentioned by some of the previous speakers here that the financial resources is really draining on the three conventions and sharing the financial resources and the technical resources among these three conventions.
I think this is really high time that we share these among the three conventions.
Moldi stands ready to encourage and engage in the cop 31 presidency process, consultations, and to contribute our national expertise in this group which is co developed.
Coordinated action from Rio conventions is for small island states, not an inspiration and it's a necessity.
Thank you very much.
Tish.
Thank you so much, Mr.
Sharif.
Now, I would like to give the floor to Sierra Leone and Arm Climate Minister Jose Emmanuel Abdullahi.
Yes, please, sir.
Thank you very much, Madam Moderator.
I'd like to thank Mongolia, Armenia, and Turkey and the Secretariat of the three Rio conventions for organizing this dialogue.
From the point of view of our people in the rural communities all across Sierra Leone, these crises are not siloed.
Delayed or excessive late rains affect agricultural yields, and that erodes the farmers incomes.
Farmers then would resort to activities that cause deforestation, which leads to biodiversity loss.
Over the few decades, you'll see more and more land degradation.
And all of this has an impact on food and water security as well as farmers incomes.
So our interventions cannot be siloed.
Time is a constraint, technical expertise is a constraint, and financial resources are constraint.
At a policy level, we are coordinating our external commitments, whether it's the NBSAP or NDCs, and At the implementation level, implementations are integrated.
An example is for P earlier, what we're working on now is going through the Food Systems resilience Program to create sustainable livelihoods for our farmers.
The way we're doing is to train our farmers, especially youth and women to be use more climate smart agriculture to build resilience and also to help to reduce the emissions and support those same farmers to restore land that has been degraded.
We don't have time, we don't have enough resources.
As far as our farmers are concerned, these are not different crisis.
As we move from Homba to Yerevan to Atala, let us remember that our people do not see these as individual crisis.
They just see problems that are affecting their lives and livelihoods.
Sir Leon stands ready to work with other parties to ensure that there is more collaboration across these three conventions.
Thank you.
Seen Abdullah.
Thank you very much, Mr.
Abdul Mahi.
Now, I would like to give the floor to UNCCDCp 16 hosts, Saudi Arabia, Deputy Minister for Water and Agriculture Use Ibram Fakih.
To thank the Turkish upcoming presidency of CP 31 and all other partners, also Mongolian presidency for CP 17 and all other parties and partners who made this important discussion on synergies here possible here in beautiful Ombator.
Again, during COP 16 and before that, we worked with many partners and parties to elevate the focus on syringages for a simple reason.
The UNCCD we viewed as the Cp for land, the Cp for land resilience and rought resilience.
And these two issues are an intersection point where multiple things meet.
And is very important for our food security, where 95% of our food is grown on land.
Also, it is very important for our water security because freshwater accessible freshwater exists on land, whether rivers or lakes or groundwater and we know the strong relation and the role of land that plays with the ocean, with the atmosphere for the water cycle.
50% of the cloud of the rain that falls on land comes from the forest and vegetation cover on land.
Also, 75% of accessible freshwater comes from a vegetated collection basin.
If we land degraded, even if the rain falls, it becomes a not a blessing because it will wash away the fertile soil and will not recharge our rivers or our groundwater, say, and is very central to food security, water security, biodiversity, because our forests are on land, our range lands on land, a lot of the terrestrial habitats on land, more than 60% of biodiversity loss is associated with habitat loss strongly related to land degradation and drought and of course, strong related to climate because the amount of carbon stored in land is three times the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.
And is the second sink for carbon after the ocean.
As you know, 24% of greenhouse gases are associated with land degradation torusration and other land use according to IPCC.
Of course, land has a huge social impact, 3.5 billion people impacted by land degradation, 1.85 billion people are impacted by drought.
A lot of the conflicts in developing countries are linked to land degradation and drought and the competition for natural resources.
I can go on and on.
From all these, we had a convention that although we know that there are three different conventions and processes and each one has its own implementing mechanism and regularity frameworks.
But really on the action, when we act, we need to integrate the action.
We still have a huge disparity in the political focus.
There is a huge disparity in the focus between the REO Commission.
We need to have the same focus because they are interrelated.
You cannot address one issue alone and focusing and ignore the others because this will not really work.
Also, the financial flows.
Is still very low financial flows in climate adaptation and biodiversity protection in land restoration compared to other financial flows.
The numbers out there, and I think you can hear it, we need to really enhance the financial flow for the land restoration and drought resilience, similar to biodiversity or the climate.
We have also integrate the plans in the ground into national plans, international development plans, international drought resilience plans, as well as climate adaptation plans.
There is a huge room for synergies.
I would like to acknowledge other region for launching the Rio To initiative in the United Nations General Assembly in 2024.
And then we converge in CP 16, UN CCD and also the CBD and we managed to have former resolution number five and Cp 16 to really strengthen this momentum.
We had Brazil to thank in CP 30.
We have this joint statement on the synergies where we have five presidency, thanks to the Brazilian presidency for their proactiveness and leadership role and making a very strong statement of the importance to work together and integrate action.
Of course, we thank the Turkish presidency for the entire dialogue.
On synergies and we look forward for CP 17 here and CP 31 in Turkey and CP 17 Armenia to strengthen the focus on synergies because we cannot fragment the work.
We need to integrate the plan, we need to strengthen the financial flow.
We need to have the political support for all these three real CPs because they are all importance and they need to be integrated into implementation.
Thank you very much.
Sen Poka Tim.
Thank you so much.
Now, I would like to give the floor to Japanese Environment Minister Sy.
Thank the governments of Mongolia, Armenia, and Turku, and all of those involved in organizing this dialogue.
Environmental challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and desertification and land degradation are closely interconnected.
Adré them requires synergistic approaches that minimize trade offs and maximize co benefits.
From this perspective, cooperation among multilateral environmental agreements, which is the focus of today's discussion is of particular importance.
Japan has consistently advocated the promotion of synergies.
At the seventh session of the United Nations Environment Assembly last December, Japan proposed another resolution on promoting synergies, which was also adopted.
And in June this year, Japan, in collaboration with SCAP, ADB, UNIPROP and IGES launched the Asia Pacific Synergies Report.
Drawing on more than 140 cases from across the Asia Pacific region, the report demonstrates that synergistic approaches can effectively accelerate progress on the SDGs.
Given this background, Japan welcomes the real synergies group for action proposed by the CP 31 presidency of Turkey as an initiative to translate synergies into concrete action.
We hope this group will serve as a practical platform for sharing experiences and knowledge and ultimately turning synergies among MEAs into tangible action on the ground.
Panna will continue to work closely with various countries and relevant organizations to advance synergistic approaches and contribute to addressing the global environmental challenges we all face.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr.
Aya.
Now, I would like to give the floor to Cop 31 presidency high level climate champion, Mr.
Smit Abishz, please submit me.
Thank you very much, Madam Minister, first of all.
Distinguished colleagues, partners, it is a privilege to join you in my role as Cop 31 Turkey climate high level champion, helping to bring your views on the climate agenda to the negotiation room.
My message today is very simple.
We have one planet and implementation cannot happen in three separate words.
Farmer does not experience climate change, biodiversity loss, drought, and land degradation, as separate institutional agendas that farmers see all of it together.
The challenge arrive together.
Our solution must therefore work together as well.
The journey from Umbatar through Armenia to Antaia, we have unique opportunity to connect to political leadership of the three Rio convention with practical implementation on the ground.
But we should also be clear, we do not need to create another parallel system.
There is already enormous ecosystem, and this is where the global climate action agenda the climate high level champion can contribute.
We should use this implementation community to support the synergy agenda, not by duplicating existing efforts, but by connecting them and acclorating what already works.
This must ultimately translate into result for countries and people.
As we move toward Cop 21, I strongly welcome the proposed Rio Synergy group for action and the presidency process that will shape it.
My invitation to countries and partners is clear.
Join this process with practical solution.
Let us make triple cop years a journey from political alignment to practical implementation, climate change, biodiversity, loss and land degradation, coverage on the grant, our implementation must coverage there as well.
Also, I would like to special thanks to our Cop 31 president, Mr.
Morath ***.
Also another special thanks to our Cop 31 Cis, dear Deputy Minister, Madame Fatma Wark, thank you for joining us today.
Sin Awash.
Thank you very much, Mr.
Awash.
Now, I would like to give the floor to UN Deputy Secretary-General and UNP Executive Director Ingel Anderson.
Thank you very much, Madam President and thank you very much to everyone here.
It is such an honor to speak today and I want to pay tribute to the cop presidency of Mongolia and of course, the cop presidency of Turkeya, the incoming and the incoming cop presidency of Armenia.
Just say that endorsing what His Excesy the Minister of Environment from Japan was speaking about when he mentioned the criticality of synergies and spoke to the aspect of the Asia Pacific synergies work that has been concluded.
Because what many UNEP studies that we have done similarly to the one that His Excellency referred to show that if we work together across these three spaces, working on coordination and coherence, there are existing significant savings to be made.
In Central Asia where we looked at this and assessed it, we could see that if we had a coordinated implementation of the NDC, of the NB SAP, and of the LDN targets, we could cost investments or we could optimize by 24%.
That's 6.2 billion 2020-2050.
We have this in the published report from 2025.
Put very simply, synergies is where you find efficiencies and effectiveness in the resources.
By working on these parallel streams, we lose that because as we just heard from Mr.
Samed, that farmer that nomad does not know the difference between the funding stream and needs to see it in an integrated manner.
So countries are now working with this on the ground.
There are countries leaning in and understanding how to work this.
I put it to you that there are two dimensions to hold onto.
Number one, the plans that countries do at the ground, the climate plans, the biodiversity plans, and the desertification land plans need to be seen as one integrated whole.
That's hard because at times it goes across ministries, but many times, it is the same team planning the same plans, but having to do it three times.
That's where monies are lost in the shuffle.
Secondly, and the other part deals with the reporting to the convention, the planning submitted to the conventions.
The UN CCD communications, the NB SAPs, and the NDCs are written not infrequently by the very same team and reported against by the very same team.
Add to that reporting on the Cagena protocol, the Noya protocol, and many other protocols, et cetera, it becomes very heavy.
And so here we need to talk about what would integrated reporting look like? It's in parties hands.
We from the UN and from the three conventions can support and there are a number of decisions that are on the docket of the various cops.
But I put it to you that it's in all our interests for the burden of reporting that is placed on the countries and for the efficiencies of the resources that yes, are mobilized from different pockets, but nevertheless go to the same level of community action.
And so where we can make this really play out for efficiency is indeed at the local level.
Opportunity now where we've seen this work is the small bits where we've seen this actually work for greater efficiency and I won't mention the countries because I would probably fail to mention all is to take that to scale.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is what lies before us.
That is why the synergies work and the decision that was taken in Cop 16 by UN CCD under the Saudi presidency was important.
That is why the CBD decisions are important, and that is why the continued dialogue inside climate change matters so much.
Thank you very much.
All right.
Can Anderson.
Thank you very much, miss Anderson.
Now, I would like to give the floor to again, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of UNFC UN CBD As Schumacher.
President, it's an honor to be in this discussion.
It's a truly exciting moment for us because we've been discussing synergies for decades, including across the Rio conventions.
I think we've now come to a moment where we've seen that policy coherence is no longer optional, but it's absolutely essential and that what is holding us back more than anything is the fragmentation across conventions and across the national implementation.
As we see it, what we need is a reset, a reset in the way we approach the Rio conventions.
Not in terms of messing around with the mandates, not questioning the mandates, no, the Rio conventions have served as well.
But looking at the way we implement them, the way we plan for them, the way we monitor, and then the way we report on them.
Equally importantly, we need a sea change in the way we finance action under those convention.
If 89% of bilateral biodiversity finance delivers for climate, but only 22% of climate finance delivers for biodiversity, we're not calling for redistribution, but we're looking at a massive missed opportunity and at a massive opportunity basically for optimized allocation of scarce funds.
Now, what that needs and means in practice in coming to Cop 17 and Yvan is that the Armenian presidency will champion a multi level roadmap on synergies, including by convening yet another high level ministerial dialogue on synergies.
The goal is to help countries to align these national plans, their climate contributions, biodiversity strategies, land restoration, target planning to be more efficient and impactful, but also in a way that we can reduce the burden on countries because the UN system is also about leaving no one behind and as we could see in our convention, we are leaving entire regions behind that can no longer comply with these multiple reporting burdens, even if they may want to, not a question of commitment, but a question of capacity.
Largely, as finance is constrained, we need a more attractive offer to the private sector in particular.
That offer cannot come from competing calls from different conventions.
But from integrated investment pipelines based on integrated resource mobilization strategies.
I think that's what it is all about.
Having this party driven process that we hope comes to fruition after further discussion in Yerevan and then in Antaia is a truly exciting moment for all of us.
Thank you.
Trupti Durmim.
Thank you very much.
Now, I would like to leave the floor to Dear Simon Steele, the Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the UNF AAA.
Simon.
Thank you very much, Fatman, I thank the Cop 17 presidency, the incoming UN CBD and UNF True presidencies, Executive secretaries, my sisters, Ysmin and Astrid, partners, ministers for convening this session.
I've actually got a set of formal notes to present.
But I don't think there is too much more for me to add than what's already been said.
Astrid, Inga and Yasmin articulated quite clearly.
But the piece I do want to focus on, it is the politics and ensuring that the politics of our respective conventions matches, first of all, the lived experiences in all of the countries represented here.
Um, the increasing environmental impacts that are devastating lives and livelihoods.
But matching the politics with those lived realities, but also then the practicalities of our conventions.
Inger articulated clearly the heavy burden burdens that are placed on parties.
Whether it is the reporting, I believe over the three conventions, our environmental report and it's close to 50 reports that are generated in country every year.
Within that, the overlap is significant.
We need to remove that burden.
As Inga said, it is the same ministry technical staff that are actually working on these.
Then come to implementation.
We left Belling last year with that call to action that this is now the era of implementation.
We're hearing the same calls here in Mongolia and we will hear exactly the same calls in Armenia.
If we are to recognize, again, those practical realities of the limited resources, financial, human, technical, to service these three conventions and the mandates that are generated from them, we need to be serious in terms of identifying how we can take a far more integrated approach on those overlapping mandates, respecting the party driven process, respecting the mandates of the respective conventions, but taking a very practical approach as to how we implement these.
This fundamentally is in the interest of people and in the interest of the planet.
Let's make the politics of this match the realities and the practicalities of it.
I thank you.
Simon.
Thank you very much, Simon.
Now I'm going to give the floor to Deputy Executive Secretary of UNCCT, miss Andrea Mitza.
I think we have been hearing clearly from the previous presidencies and I really want to remark as well, Brazil, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Colombia, now all the incoming and current presidencies as well.
I mean, there is a clear call that we need to do things in a different manner.
I would like to be a little bit disruptive right now.
I don't think that we can say that we can do more with less.
I will be careful with this because we're not investing enough in these agendas.
The real thing is, how can we do better? We need to align more public funding, clearly in private funding for sustainability, for rangelands to address this.
Because this is, as we know, not only an environmental issue, we're talking about the kind of development model that we want to see in the different countries and these were required investments in a scale that we're not seeing.
Clearly, I think that the big element is how to do this in a way that we see more impact.
Clearly, fragmentation does not contribute to that.
It's more on the issue of better delivering and this is where we're facing a lot of challenges.
The citizens around the world are saying too many cop decisions, too many plans at the national level, and we're not seeing the trajectory of degradation changing, and this is what needs to change.
This is where we need to come with new things.
We're in the middle of a lot of transitions, energy transition, digitalization, and we need coherence at the end because and I will be echo what the previous speakers have been saying.
If you go to a farmer, he's just facing a lot of challenges.
You can name it as climate, biodiversity loss, land degradation, whatever at the end.
We are here to deliver as multilateralism and this can only be done with more integration for better impact.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Now, I would like to invite the floor to the Deputy Minister of Environment and Climate Change of Mongolia, Distinguished Moctavi Bactaa.
Madam Deputy Minister.
Excellencies, distinguished executive secretist and ministers and distinguished delegates and ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure to welcome you to Lombard for this high level dialogue on real synergies and 2026 AA Cop year.
I'd like to thank our partners, including our incoming presidencies of CBD Cop 17 and UNF TPC Cop 31 for joining us in this important discussion.
Challenge addressed by the three Rio conventions are deeply interconnected, climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation and decertification cannot be addressed effectively through separate approach.
What we do for land has implications for climate, biodiversity, water, and livelihoods.
This is why stronger coordination across the Rio convention is essential.
The 2026 TpA Cp year provides a unique opportunity and momentum to strengthen this coordination.
As the first UN Convention Cp of the year, UNSAT Cp 17 is opening this process.
The momentum will then continue through the CBD Cop 17 under the presidency of Armenia and UNF AAC Cop 31 under the presidency of Turka.
Today, up to 40% of the world's land is degraded, affecting around half of the humanity.
Restoring 1.5 billion hectas of degraded land by 2030 is essential to reach a land degradation neutral world.
We should also recognize that coordination is not always easy.
The three conventions have different mandates, processes, and priorities, and the countries face different national circumstances.
But these differences should not prevent us from working together where our objectives align.
The BLM joint statement has provided an important foundation by reaffirming the commitment of the Rcation presidencies to strengthen the synergies.
The task before us is now to translate these political commitments into implementation.
For Mongolia, land is an important entry point for this integrated approach.
Sustainable land management and restoration can contribute to climate resilience, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable development.
Through our S action agenda, the Mongolia is working to connect these priorities and translate commitments into implementation and partnerships and investment opportunities.
As we begin this triple Cp period, I believe we should focus on what we can do together to strengthen the policy coherence and share knowledge and technical capacity and improve access to finance.
Importantly, we do not need to create a new structures for every challenge.
We already have a strong ecosystems of initiatives, partnerships, and institutions working across the RL Conventions.
Our objective should be connect and strengthen these efforts, and this is also principle behind the proposed world synergies groups for action.
I encourage countries, organizations, and financing institutions to engage in this process and contribute practical experience, expertise, and resources.
I would like to thank you and I wish you a productive discussion at Cp 17.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Mr.
Bmeyer very last floor will go to UK Special Envoy for Nature, Ruth Bailey.
Davis.
Thank you very much.
I'm pleased to be here and to be able to speak on behalf of the United Kingdom.
I want to thank our Mongolian hosts very much and specifically to recognize and thank the presidencies of cops, past, present, and future who we see here with us, the executive secretaries and the Secretariat of the conventions.
Seeing you here, making these interventions is a very specific and visible expression of the cooperation that you're offering and your leadership around this agenda.
I've been in many rooms over many years with all of you.
Talking about these issues, but I cannot remember such a solid expression across the political leadership and the executive secretary leadership on this agenda.
I'm very deeply heartened to see that.
I want to offer our full support from the United Kingdom to do whatever we can to work with you on this agenda, which as you know, is extremely important to us in this Triple Cp year.
Um I will just repeat very briefly what others have said.
This matters because it matters to our citizens on the ground.
They are not experiencing these agendas separately.
They're experiencing them as multiple crises, and they are asking for and championing the kinds of solutions that deliver across all three conventions.
It's really an imperative for us to respond and to listen.
The way in which I think we would really like to do that is by making practical progress on some of the issues that have been put forward by the intervention so far today.
Very specifically, I think that there's so much that we could do on national planning processes and on reporting, which could make things both more efficient and reduce some of the burdens that are associated with that, but also allow us to identify where the real synergistic solutions are that are going to work for people.
We have some experience of doing that in the United Kingdom because we've reduced a joint and integrated report on our NDC and NBSAP implementation.
Our experience was that in doing that, we revealed to ourselves places where we had an opportunity to do things much better.
We know that this is a genuine possibility.
And whether it's in the area and the challenges of food security so present, I think in our minds at the moment, in drought that we're experiencing, in wildfires that so many of us are dealing with and in the area of oceans, there is very much to do, there is very little time and I just want to repeat that the visible expression of leadership in this room is a huge encouragement.
We stand with you ready to support in any way we can and we wish you very best of luck over this three cop process.
Thank you.
I would like to thank distinguished participants who took the floor so far for the valuable contributions they have provided.
I would like to extend my sincerest apologies to those participants who asked for the floor, but we couldn't deliver and we couldn't give the floor to.
The participants who could not took the floor today, I'd like to reassure you that if you convey your contributions in writing, we will definitely take them into consideration and on behalf of the incoming Cop 31 presidency as Turkey, I sincerely highlight that we support and endorse the Blam joint statement.
The Rio Synergy action target that we have as part of our action agenda is officially initiated here today thanks to your contributions.
Therefore, I thank you very much sincerely.
Once again, let me highlight the fact that you are all kindly invited to Atalia for Cp 31 between nine and 20th of November.
We are quite eager to have you.
Thank you, everyone.
Have a great day.
Much and an invitation, please, before you all leave to come forward for the family photo.
I know I'm rushing you, but our next event is poised at the door.
We are officially being kicked out of the room.
Please come forward for the family photo for all of those who have spoken today.
Thank you very much indeed.
Family photo, please, at the front of the room before we leave.
Thank you.
Could I have all participants and speakers, please to come to the front in front of the poster? Where I'm standing basically.
Could you just head to me, please? Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Family photo and could I please have the protocol team here, please, to ensure that our participants are placed correctly.
Protocol, please come to the front of the room along with speakers.
Thank you.