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Rising up from
drought together is Spain’s call for
Desertification and Drought Day on 17
June
Bonn/Madrid,
13 June 2022 - Spain, one of the
European countries most vulnerable to drought and
water shortages linked to climate change, is
hosting this year’s global observance of Desertification and Drought
Day on 17 June. The event titled,
“Rising up from drought together,” will
take place at the Auditorio Museo
Nacional Reina Sofia in Madrid. Drought
is the theme for the Day this year.
Media
are invited to participate at the event organized
by the Government of Spain and the United Nations
Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD),
where renown scientists, issue experts, youth
representatives and high-level policymakers from
Spain and around the world will speak about:
- the
role of science based on the drought risks
identified for different climate change
scenarios
- success
stories of drought mitigation and adaptation in
Spain and other countries.
- viable
drought policies and their components
Pedro
Sánchez, President of the Government of
Spain, Alain-Richard
Donwahi, President of UNCCD COP15, Côte
d'Ivoire, Ibrahim Thiaw,
Executive Secretary, UN Convention to Combat
Desertification
(UNCCD), and Patricia
Kombo, UNCCD Land Hero from Kenya
are among the notable speakers (see full list
below).
Droughts
are increasing in frequency and severity up 29
percent since 2000 and affecting an estimated 55
million people every year, according to the
latest Drought
in Numbers report from UNCCD. By 2050,
drylands may cover between 50 to 60 percent of all
land, with an estimated three-quarters of the
world’s population living in these areas under
conditions of severe water scarcity.
The
Horn of Africa, for example, is in its fourth year
of drought. A similar drought in Southern Africa
five years ago put 20 million people on the verge
of starvation. This year Chile marked a
record-breaking 13th year of drought. A prolonged
drought in the United States that started in 2000
is the country’s driest period in over 1200
years.
In
the lead up to the 2022 Desertification and
Drought Day, UNCCD launched Droughtland,
a public awareness campaign featuring a fictional
drought-stricken nation, to showcase solutions and
rally global action to boost drought
resilience.
Detailed
information, which includes the programme, media
resources and background documents to facilitate
coverage of the event, is provided below.
Venue
Auditorio
Museo Nacional Reina Sofia, Rondo de Atocha,
Madrid, Spain.
Webcast
Link: https://bit.ly/3Nw1Wgt (in
the floor language)
Streaming
through Twitter and Facebook: @unccd
Time
Friday,
17 June 2022
11:00-14:00
hrs (CEST) /09:00-12:00 (GMT/UTC)
Invited
speakers
- Mr. Pedro
Sánchez, President of the Government of
Spain (Prime Minster)
- Mr. Antonio
Guterres, Secretary-General of the
United Nations
- Mr. Alain-Richard
Donwahi, President of UNCCD COP15, Côte
d'Ivoire
- Mr. Ibrahim
Thiaw, Executive Secretary, UN
Convention to Combat Desertification
(UNCCD)
- Mr Virginijus
Sinkevičius, European Commissioner for
Environment, Oceans and Fisheries
- Ms. Teresa
Ribera, Third Vice-President of the
government and Minister for the Ecological
Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Spain
- Ms. Maria
Helena Semedo, Deputy Director, Food
and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations
- Ms. Skumsa
Ntshanga, Ag. Deputy Director-General,
Biodiversity and Conservation Branch, Ministry
of Forests, Fisheries and Environment, South
Africa
- Ms. Patricia
Kombo, founder of the PaTree Initiative
and UNCCD Land Hero
- Ms. María
Jesús Rodríguez de Sancho, General
Director of Biodiversity, Forestry and
Desertification, Spain
- Mr. Pilar
Paneque, leader of the Spanish Citizen
Observatory of Drought and Professor of Human
Geography, Pablo de Olavide University of
Seville, Spain
- Ms. Attia
Rafla, Director for Soil Resources.
Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources and
Fisheries of Tunisia.
- Ms. Elena
López Gunn, Chief Executive Officer,
ICATALIST. Associate professor at IE Business
School and collaborator of the Water
Observatory, the Botín Foundation and the Basque
Center for Climate Change, Spain
- Mr. Mark
Svoboda, Director of the National
Center for Drought Monitoring in the United
States
Background
Drought
in Numbers, released on 11 May at
the fifteenth
session of the Conference of the Parties to the
United Nations Convention to Combat
Desertification (UNCCD COP15) calls for
making a full global commitment to drought
preparedness and resilience in all global regions
a top priority.
The
report was issued just days before The State of the Global Climate
2021 report released May 2022 by the
World Meteorological Organization (WMO). According
to the report, the past seven years have been the
warmest seven years on record, and drought
affected many parts of the world, including the
Horn of Africa, Canada, the western United States,
Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Türkiye.
Drought
resilience was a top agenda item at UNCCD
COP15.
Countries agreed to
boost drought resilience, and identified some
of the key actions. They will identify the areas
that could turn into drylands, improve national
policies, including on early warning, monitoring
and assessment, learn and share knowledge, build
partnerships and coordinate action, and mobilize
drought finance. In addition, they will set up
an Intergovernmental Working Group on
Drought for 2022-2024 to look into possible
options, including global policy instruments and
regional policy frameworks, to support a shift
from reactive to proactive drought management.
The
Working Group reports released earlier this year
by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) as part of the Sixth Assessment
Report warn that we have up to 2030 to
take actions to get us on track to staying within
a temperature rise of no more than 1.5 degrees
Celsius. Warming above that level would have
catastrophic impacts on both people and the
planet.
Notes
to Editors
International
journalists travelling to Spain to cover the event
need be registered, and should email: bzn-p...@miteco.es and
copy wwisch...@unccd.int. A copy
of your valid press card and passport will be
required to pick your access card.
Download various
materials here (https://bit.ly/3xd4IjC):
Social
Media
Twitter:
@TourDroughtland
Instagram:
@TourDroughtland
Hashtags:
#Nodroughtland #UNited4Land
Download social
media assets, including banners,
infographics, cartoons and postcards: https://bit.ly/3PZBzAX
Learn
more about the campaign: droughtland.com
For
information about Desertification and Drought Day
visit: https://www.unccd.int/2022-desertification-and-drought-day
For information
about Desertification and Drought
Day events in Spain and around the world, contact
Xenya Scanlon, Chief of Communications,
UNCCD: xsca...@unccd.int
For media
related inquires:
On
site contact: Alejandro Gomez, arg...@miteco.es
Virtually:
Wagaki Wischnewski, wwisch...@unccd.int, +49 173
268 7593 (m)
About
UNCCD
The
United Nations Convention to Combat
Desertification (UNCCD) is the global vision and
voice for land. We unite governments, scientists,
policymakers, private sector and communities
around a shared vision and global action to
restore and manage the world’s land for the
sustainability of humanity and the planet. Much
more than an international treaty signed by 197
parties, UNCCD is a multilateral commitment to
mitigating today’s impacts of land degradation and
advancing tomorrow’s land stewardship in order to
provide food, water, shelter and economic
opportunity to all people in an equitable and
inclusive manner.
