Geneva World Environment Day Celebration 2024 | Action on Land Restoration & Drought Resilience

Since its first celebration in 1973, World Environment Day has been an occasion to raise awareness on environmental problems and to call for collaborative action across actors around the world. The 2024 edition of World Environment Day will focus on land restoration, desertification and drought resilience, under the slogan “Our Land. Our Future. We are #GenerationRestoration”, as the year marks the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
Today, the future of our land is on the line. According to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, up to 40 per cent of the planet’s land is degraded, directly affecting half of the world’s population and threatening roughly half of global GDP (US$44 trillion). The number and duration of droughts has increased by 29 per cent since 2000 - without urgent action, droughts may affect over three-quarters of the world’s population by 2050. Land restoration is a key pillar of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), a rallying call for the protection and revival of ecosystems all around the world, which is critical to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
This year, the sixteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP16) of the UNCCD will also take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from 2 to 13 December 2024. At UNCCD COP16, the world will come together to aim towards scaling up ambition and investment to restore 1.5 billion hectares of degraded lands by 2030, to have a collective agreement on how to tackle worsening droughts, to feed growing populations without converting more land or depleting our soils, and to deliver secure land rights for all in all parts of the world.
As a global hub for environmental governance, Geneva plays an important role in the global response to desertification, land degradation, and drought (DLDD). With leading organizations on environmental issues, nature conservation, water, health, human rights and many relevant areas of work, Geneva hosts a strong expertise to contribute to global processes tackling DLDD. From addressing the impacts and preventing the risks posed by this crisis on people and the planet to developing policies to halt DLDD, stakeholders from Geneva also play a role in making links to address other environmental crises.
Leading diplomats and international experts taking the floor at this event will highlight how international Geneva multilateral diplomacy system, with its numerous intergovernmental organizations, permanent governmental missions, NGOs, platforms, academic institutions, and other stakeholders, is engaged in the upcoming UNCCD COP16 and how it is actively tackling desertification, land degradation, and drought.
More information: www.genevaenvironmentnetwork....