Recently, the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change addressed the fifteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Cote d'Ivoire (Western Africa).
Context
Recently, the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change addressed the fifteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Cote d'Ivoire (Western Africa).
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India hosted the 14th session of the Conference of Parties of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification from September 2 to 13, 2019, in New Delhi.
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About COP15
- Theme: The theme of COP15 is, ‘Land. Life. Legacy: From scarcity to prosperity’.
- It calls for action to ensure land, the lifeline on this planet, continues to benefit present and future generations.
- COP15 is aimed at driving progress in the future sustainable management of one of our most precious commodities: land. ?
- It also aims to explore links between land and other key sustainability issues and hold interactive dialogues on important matters.
- Top items in the agenda: Drought, land restoration, and related enablers such as land rights, gender equality, and youth empowerment.
- Some 128 countries have pledged to UNCCD to achieve land degradation neutrality.
- Of these, 70 countries have agreed to be part of the UNCCD’s Drought Initiative.
- Under the initiatives, the countries take a mitigation approach to avert drought that includes curbing land degradation.
What is COP?
- The Conference of the Parties (COP) was established by the Convention as its main decision-making body.
- COP is mandated to review reports submitted by the Parties detailing how they are carrying out their Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) commitments and make recommendations based on these reports.
- The COP has been meeting biennially since 2001 and has held 14 sessions.
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About UNCCD
- UNCCD was established in 1994 to protect and restore land and ensure a safer, just, and more sustainable future.
- The UNCCD 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 – based on the principles of participation, partnership and decentralization – is a multilateral commitment to mitigate the impact of land degradation, and protect land to provide food, water, shelter and economic opportunity to all people.
