G20 environment and climate ministerial meeting: Statement by Ibrahim Thiaw

Madame Minister, Marina da Silva,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Bom dia!

I have indelible memories of my visit to Brazil last June, when Minister Marina Silva invited me to visit the Caatinga region with her. 

It was instructive for me to discover the extent of land degradation and drought in a country mostly known for its lush forests and vast rivers. 

It was news to me that the arid and semi-arid zones of Brazil cover 1.4 million km2 and that 59 per cent of the territory is affected by drought, 1/3 of which by extreme drought! 

How to feed these people? How to supply them with clean water and reliable energy? 

How, in these conditions, can we promote industrialization, create jobs and ensure human well-being? 

Brazil’s case is just an example of how land degradation and drought are having serious impacts in the world. 

Excellencies, 

Ladies and gentlemen, 

We are living in a paradoxical bubble. 

While in theory the world has never accumulated so much wealth, there have never been such striking disparities and inequalities, so many displaced populations, so much forced migration. 

The number of people without jobs or secure livelihoods is rising inexorably in many parts of the world. 

While certain countries in the world are reservoirs of mineral resources and agricultural commodities, forest and fishery products, some of these same countries are experiencing the most appalling poverty. 

This calls for a rethinking of our economic models. 

For far too long, we have adopted policies of extraction, exportation of raw material, processing abroad, re-exporting, using and discarding. 

This type of linear extractive economy, whether agricultural or mining, often leads to inequality, resentment and dissension. 

Perpetuating this model in this 21st century is ruinous and counterproductive. It is obsolete and needs to be reviewed. 

Given the current level of degradation of our land (up to 40 per cent of fertile land is already degraded), and in view of the trends towards 2050, we have little choice but to review our policies and practices. 

And the G20 Environmental meetings is the place to start rethinking, perhaps with the South African Presidency. 

Challengingly, we must produce at least 50 per cent more food, while leaving a smaller footprint on the planet. 

Producing more nutritious food with less: less land, less water, less pollution. 

Not an easy equation, but not impossible to solve. 

One of the most accessible, sustainable and natural solutions is large-scale restoration of degraded land. 

In addition to the fertile land already in use, we have a reservoir of 1.5 billion hectares of degraded land which can be rehabilitated, cared for and put back into production. 

The investment required is relatively modest in view of the return on investment and economic income, estimated at between 7 to 30 times the original investment.

Beyond economics, bringing degraded land back to health provides multiple other solutions: 

• Restoring degraded land is often the best way of combating forced migration, recognizing that people have no choice but to flee when they cannot provide food and dignity to their families. The correlations between forced migration and arid lands has been established…
• Restoring degraded land therefore fights against poverty (think of those who have no other asset than their ancestral land); 
• Investing in land restoration can also reduce conflicts and insecurity, particularly conflicts over access to fertile land and scarce water. Land and Water are often the (neglected) root causes or the (poorly understood) triggers of conflicts. 

Finally, land restoration meets climate change ambitions (both mitigation and adaptation), biodiversity (target 2 of the Global Biodiversity Framework) and, of course, the fight against land degradation (Land Degradation Neutrality), i.e. the ambitions of the so-called Rio Conventions. 

It is encouraging that the G20 established in 2020 a Global Land Restoration Initiative aiming at halving degraded lands in the world by 2040. 

The implementation of such a visionary initiative is however timid and needs to be boosted throughout the entire G20 block and beyond. 

Excellencies, 

Ladies and gentlemen 

Now let me turn to drought. An issue which affects us all – rich and poor. Right here in Latin America, we are currently witnessing the lowest water levels on record in many of the rivers in the Amazon basin – and this follows the most severe drought faced in 45 years. 

Across the world, droughts are occurring more frequently and more severely – up by one third since 2000. An estimated 3 in 4 people worldwide will be affected by drought by 2050. 

And sadly, droughts never come alone: wildfires, food insecurity, economic downturn, disruption of energy generation, and even disruption of supply chains as we recently witnessed in the Panama Canal. 

It is incredible to witness the burning of the Amazon rainforest as well as the Pantanal, reported as the world’s largest wetland. 

Before I conclude, allow me to extend a special invitation to all of you to join us at UNCCD COP16, taking place from December 2nd to 13th, 2024, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. You laready heard from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, our wonderful host who spares no effort to make this COP a turning point in the life of the Convention. 

In Riyadh, Leaders, Ministers, Entrepreneurs, Indigenous People, Women and Youth will each have a chance to engage in shaping future policies and accelerating action on land restoration and drought resilience. 

Together with our hosts, we look forward to continuing these important conversations on a global stage.