World “At a
Crossroads” in Managing
Drought,
Up 29% in a
Generation and Worsening:
UN
| Humanity
is “at a crossroads” when it comes to managing
drought and accelerating mitigation must be done
“urgently, using every tool we can,” says a new
report from the United Nations Convention to
Combat Desertification
(UNCCD). | |
“Drought
In Numbers, 2022,” released today to mark
Drought Day at UNCCD’s 15th Conference of
Parties (COP15, 9-20 May in Abidjan, Côte
d’Ivoire) – calls for making a full global
commitment to drought preparedness and
resilience in all global regions a top
priority.
The report, an
authoritative compendium of drought-related
information and data, helps inform negotiations
of one of several decisions by UNCCD’s 196
member states, to be issued 20 May at the
conclusion of COP15.
“The facts and
figures of this publication all point in the
same direction: an upward trajectory in the
duration of droughts and the severity of
impacts, not only affecting human societies but
also the ecological systems upon which the
survival of all life depends, including that of
our own species.” says Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive
Secretary of the UNCCD.
The report
creates a compelling call to action. For
example:
- Since
2000, the number and duration of droughts has
risen 29%
- From
1970 to 2019, weather, climate and water hazards
accounted for 50% of disasters and 45% of
disaster-related deaths, mostly in developing
countries
- Droughts
represent 15% of natural disasters but took the
largest human toll, approximately 650,000 deaths
from 1970-2019
- From
1998 to 2017, droughts caused global economic
losses of roughly USD 124 billion
- In
2022, more than 2.3 billion people face water
stress; almost 160 million children are exposed
to severe and prolonged droughts
Unless action is stepped up:
- By
2030, an estimated 700 million people
will be at risk of being displaced by drought
- By
2040, an estimated one in four children
will live in areas with extreme water
shortages
- By
2050, droughts may affect over
three-quarters of the world’s population, and an
estimated 4.8-5.7 billion people will live in
areas that are water-scarce for at least one
month each year, up from 3.6 billion
today. And up to 216 million people could
be forced to migrate by 2050, largely due to
drought in combination with other factors
including water scarcity, declining crop
productivity, sea-level rise, and overpopulation
- See
below for additional report highlights
“We are at a crossroads,”
says Mr. Thiaw. “We need to steer toward
the solutions rather than continuing with
destructive actions, believing that marginal
change can heal systemic
failure.”
“One of the best, most
comprehensive solutions is land restoration,
which addresses many of the underlying factors
of degraded water cycles and the loss of soil
fertility. We must build and rebuild our
landscapes better, mimicking nature wherever
possible and creating functional ecological
systems.”
Beyond restoration, he
adds, is the need for a paradigm shift from
‘reactive’ and ‘crisis-based’ approaches to
‘proactive’ and ‘risk-based’ drought management
approaches involving coordination, communication
and cooperation, driven by sufficient finance
and political
will.
Needed as
well:
- Sustainable
and efficient agricultural management techniques
that grow more food on less land and with less
water
- Changes
in our relationships with food, fodder and
fiber, moving toward plant-based diets, and
reducing or stopping the consumption of animals
- Concerted
policy and partnerships at all levels
- Development
and implementation of integrated drought action
plans
- Set
up effective early-warning systems that work
across boundaries
- Deployment
of new technologies such as satellite monitoring
and artificial intelligence to guide decisions
with greater precision
- Regular
monitoring and reporting to ensure continuous
improvement
- Mobilize
sustainable finance to improve drought
resilience at the local level
- Invest
in soil health
- Work
together and include and mobilize farmers, local
communities, businesses, consumers, investors,
entrepreneurs and, above all, young people
The new UNCCD report notes
that 128 countries have expressed willingness to
achieve or exceed Land Degradation Neutrality.
And nearly 70 countries participated in the
UNCCD’s global drought initiative, which aims to
shift from reactive approaches to drought to a
proactive and risk-reducing
approach.
Mr. Thiaw
underlined the importance of promoting public
awareness about desertification and drought, and
letting people know the problems can be
effectively tackled “through ingenuity,
commitment and
solidarity.”
“We all must
live up to our responsibility to ensure the
health of present and future generations,
wholeheartedly and without
delay.”
The COP15 decision on
drought is expected to touch on five
interrelated areas:
- drought
policies
- early
warning, monitoring and assessment
- knowledge
sharing and learning
- partnerships
and coordination, and
- drought
finance
* * * *
*
UNCCD launches
“Droughtland” public awareness
initiative
Droughtland,
a new UNCCD public awareness campaign also
launched today aims to showcase solutions and
rally global action on
drought.
Launch
details: Wednesday, 11 May, 13:00-13:30
UTC (check local time here)
- Allain
Donwahi, COP15 President
- Ibrahim
Thiaw, UNCCD Executive Secretary
- Hugo
Moran, Secretary of State, Spain, speaks about
hosting global observance of Desertification and
Drought DAy
- Xenya
Scanlon, Chief of Communications, UNCCD
Live webcast: UNCCD
YouTube Channel, here.
The
campaign will be featured during UN
Desertification and Drought Day (17
June), hosted this year by Madrid,
Spain
UN Desertification and
Drought Day has four key objectives:
- Equip
people worldwide with tools to assess their
current or potential future exposure to drought
risk
- Share
proven, innovative international solutions to
drought
- Create
public opportunities to participate in action,
and
- Celebrate
progress and inspire action
* * * *
*
Additional
highlights, Drought in Numbers,
2022
Drought
around the world (1900-2022)
- More
than 10 million people died due to major drought
events in the past century, causing several
hundred billion USD in economic losses
worldwide. And the numbers are rising
- Severe
drought affects Africa more than any other
continent, with more than 300 events recorded in
the past 100 years, accounting for 44% of the
global total. More recently, sub-Saharan Africa
has experienced the dramatic consequences of
climate disasters becoming more frequent and
intense
- In
the past century, 45 major drought events
occurred in Europe, affecting millions of people
and resulting in more than USD 27.8 billion in
economic losses. Today, an annual average of 15%
of the land area and 17% of the population
within the European Union is affected by drought
- In
the U.S., crop failures and other economic
losses due to drought have totaled several
hundred billion USD over the last century – USD
249 billion alone since 1980
- Over
the past century, the highest total number of
humans affected by drought were in Asia
| |
| |
Impacts on
human society
- Over
1.4 billion people were affected by drought from
2000 to 2019. This makes drought the disaster
affecting the second-highest number of people,
after flooding. Africa suffered from drought
more frequently than any other continent with
134 droughts, of which 70 occurred in East
Africa
- The
effect of severe droughts was estimated to have
reduced India’s gross domestic product by 2-5%
over the 10 years 1998 to 2017
- As
a result of the Australian Millennium Drought,
total agricultural productivity fell by 18% from
2002 to 2010
- Greater
burdens and suffering are inflicted on women and
girls in emerging and developing countries in
terms of education levels, nutrition, health,
sanitation, and safety
- The
burden of water collection – especially in
drylands – falls disproportionately on women
(72%) and girls (9%), who, in some cases, spend
as much as 40% of their calorific intake
carrying water
- Droughts
have deep, widespread and underestimated impacts
on societies, ecosystems, and economies, with
only a portion of the actual losses accounted
for
- A
2017 California case study showed that an
increase of about 100 drought stories over two
months was associated with a reduction of 11 to
18% in typical household water-use
Impacts
on ecosystems
- The
percentage of plants affected by drought has
more than doubled in the last 40 years, with
about 12 million hectares of land lost each year
due to drought and desertification
- Ecosystems
progressively turn into carbon sources,
especially during extreme drought events,
detectable on five of six continents
- One-third
of global carbon dioxide emissions is offset by
the carbon uptake of terrestrial ecosystems, yet
their capacity to sequester carbon is highly
sensitive to drought events
- 14%
of wetlands critical for migratory species, as
listed by Ramsar, are located in drought-prone
regions
- The
megadrought in Australia contributed to
‘megafires’ in 2019-2020 resulting in the most
dramatic loss of habitat for threatened species
in postcolonial history; about 3 billion animals
were killed or displaced in the Australian
wildfires
- Drought-induced
peatland fires in Indonesia resulted in
decreasing biodiversity, including both the
number of individuals as well as plant species
- Photosynthesis
in European ecosystems was reduced by 30% during
the summer drought of 2003, which resulted in an
estimated net carbon release of 0.5
gigatons
- 84%
of terrestrial ecosystems are threatened by
changing and intensifying wildfires
- During
the first two decades of the 21st century, the
Amazon experienced 3 widespread droughts, all of
which triggered massive forest fires. Drought
events are becoming increasingly common in the
Amazon region due to land-use and climate
change, which are interlinked.
- If
Amazonian deforestation continues unabated, 16%
of the region’s remaining forests will likely
burn by 2050
Predictable
futures
- Climate
change is expected to increase the risk of
droughts in many vulnerable regions of the
world, particularly those with rapid population
growth, vulnerable populations and challenges
with food security
- Within
the next few decades, 129 countries will
experience an increase in drought exposure
mainly due to climate change alone – 23
primarily due to population growth and 38 mostly
due to the interaction between climate change
and population growth
- If
global warming reaches 3 degrees Celsius by 2100
as some predict, drought losses could be five
times higher than they are today, with the
largest increase in the Mediterranean and the
Atlantic regions of Europe
- In
Angola, more than 40% of livestock, a
significant livelihood source accounting for
31.4% of the agricultural GDP, is currently
exposed to droughts and expected to rise to 70%
under projected climate conditions
- In
the E.U. and U.K., annual losses from drought
are currently estimated to be around EUR 9
billion and projected to rise to more than EUR
65 billion without meaningful climate action
Successful
business cases
- By
adopting drip irrigation, small-scale vegetable
farmers in drought-prone provinces of VietNam
(Binh Phouc), Cambodia (Prey Veng and Svay
Reing), the Philippines (Lantapan and Bukidnon)
and Indonesia (Reing and Bogor, West Java;
Rembang, East Java) were able to increase water
use efficiency by up to 43% and yield by 8-15%
- With
the highest water efficiency rate in
agriculture, reaching a 70-80% rate, drip
irrigation has helped to solve the problem of
water scarcity in Israel
Other
highlights
- Information
Technology and Indigenous Knowledge with
Intelligence (ITIKI) is a drought early warning
system that integrates Indigenous knowledge and
drought forecasting to help small-scale farmers
make more informed decisions, for example, on
when and how to plant which crops. The support
forecast models provides accuracy of 70-98% for
lead-times of up to four years, as shown by
trials in Mozambique, Kenya and South Africa
- Up
to USD 1.4 trillion in production value can be
generated globally by adopting sustainable land
and water management practices
- Approximately
4 million hectares of degraded land within
“strict intervention zones” have been
rehabilitated under the framework of the African
Union–led restoration initiative known as the
Great Green Wall – 4% of the Wall’s ultimate
target of restoring 100 million hectares,
helping to reduce the immanent threats of
desertification and drought
* * * *
* Related: UNCCD’s
flagship Global Land Outlook
2 (GLO2) report, five years
in development with 21 partner organizations, and
with over 1,000 references, is the most
comprehensive consolidation of information on the
topic ever assembled. Released Apr. 27,
it reported up to 40% of all ice-free land is
already degraded, with dire consequences for
climate, biodiversity and
livelihoods. * * * *
* Notes to
editors The
15th Conference
of Parties (COP15) to the United Nations
Convention to Combat
Desertification (UNCCD, 9-20 May,
Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire) is focussed on:
- The
restoration of 1 billion hectares of degraded
land between now and 2030
- Future-proofing
land use against the impacts of climate change,
and
- Tackling
escalating droughts, sand and dust storms,
wildfires and other disaster risks.
More than a
dozen heads of state and government, ministers,
and at least 2,000 delegates from 196 countries
and the European Union, are expected to
attend. Major press events during the
session can be viewed live on the UNCCD YouTube
Channel here. COP15
programme, registration and other media
information: https://www.unccd.int/cop15 Future
Abidjan media programme
highlights:
- Wednesday,
18 May (time TBC): Launch of regional Global
Land Outlook reports
- Wednesday,
18 May (time TBC): Launch of the Sahel uplink
challenge to enable communities growing the
Great Green Wall to use technology to monitor
progress, create jobs and commercialize their
produce
- Friday,
20 May, 13:00-13:45 UTC (check local
time here),
outcomes of the 15th Session of the Conference
of Parties, presented by
- Alain
Richard Donwahi, COP15 President
- Ibrahim
Thiaw, UNCCD Executive Secretary
Off-site
journalists may submit questions via email
to pr...@unccd.int,
but must identify themselves and their media
organization COP15 background
documents and information: https://www.unccd.int/cop15 COP15
social media assets:
#LandLifeLegacy #UNCCDCOP15 #United4Land @unccd
UNCCD
COP15 is the first of the three Rio Conventions'
meetings in 2022, with the Biodiversity COP15 and
Climate Change COP27 convening later in Kunming,
China, and Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt,
respectively.
* * * *
* For further
information:
To request
interviews: pr...@unccd.intTerry
Collins, +1-416-878-8712, t...@tca.tc *
* * * *
| |
The UNCCD, established
in 1994, is the only legally binding framework
set up to address desertification and the
effects of drought. There are 197 Parties to the
Convention, including 196 country Parties and
the European Union. The Convention aims to
mitigate the impact of land degradation by
uniting governments, scientists, policymakers,
the private sector and communities around a
shared vision to restore and manage the world’s
land, and to ensure the sustainability of the
planet and the prosperity of future
generations. | | |
Copyright © 2017*
United Nations Convention to Combat
Desertification*, All rights
reserved.
For more information on the
Press Release, contact
Wagaki Wischnewski
Public
Information and Media Officer
Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2022
9:07 PM
Subject: World “At a
Crossroads” in Managing Drought, Up 29% in a
Generation and Worsening: UN
| | |
