The world organization is trying to collect almost three trillion euros to restore desertified land areas.
Accelerating desertification is one of the global environmental challenges.
At the extensive COP16 negotiations in Riyadh, the UN is trying to find ways to restore the withering biodiversity. The general secretary interviewed by the Reuters news agency by Ibrahim Thaw the costs of combating desertification will be calculated in these negotiations until the end of the decade.
Thaw serves as Secretary General of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.
There is a rush to arrange financing, as severe drought is affecting increasingly large parts of Africa and Asia, for example.
A new study published by the UN says that desertification and drying can be observed in an area larger than Antarctica. A total of 15 million square kilometers of land has been damaged. The damaged land area increases by an estimated one million square kilometers per year.
The member states of the UN have the will to combat desertification in order to protect a viable environment and practice livelihoods, but the UN conventions are not binding. In addition, the countries disagree with each other on the means of prevention. A consensus has been reached on the protection of 900 million hectares, but the ambitious goal is to protect 1.5 billion hectares of land by the end of the decade.
According to General Secretary Thaw, agriculture causes 23 percent of greenhouse emissions, logging 80 percent, and clean water use 7 percent.