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A severe sand and dust storm – the worst since meteorological records began – has struck Uzbekistan. On the evening of November 4, a haze engulfed Tashkent and most other areas, with the exception of the most northerly region, as a cold front swept in and a strong wind blew sand and dust across the country. “Under the influence of gusts of wind, the parched upper layer…

In 1937, Franklin Roosevelt, then president of the US, wrote to state governors in the wake of the “dust bowl” catastrophe, where drought across the Southern Plains led to catastrophic famine and dust storms. “The nation that destroys its soils destroys itself,” he wrote, highlighting what remains a fundamental truth: that the state of the Earth’s soil is a vital indicator of the planet’s health…

With an unprecedented number of droughts afflicting every corner of the world this year, it is clear that even the swiftest efforts to curb more variable rainfall and rising temperatures will be too late to prevent future water shortages. A new report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, shows clearly the scientific evidence of the changes over the past five…

By Tina Birmpili, Deputy Executive Secretary, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Across Africa, the world’s longest wall is being built. Not a wall to keep immigrants out or oppressed people in. Rather, a wall to unlock the potential of millions of people in the Sahel. This is the Great Green Wall – an African-led initiative that the entire…

The Sahel is one of the regions in the world that receives the most sunlight. The Desert to Power initiative harnesses this solar energy and generates an additional 10 GW of capacity to provide clean electricity to 250 million people. This initiative is part of the African Development Bank's New Deal for Energy in Africa and a key pillar of the Great Green Wall initiative. Desert to…

FAO presents new data base to track carbon emissions from agri-food systems around the world. 08/11/2021 Rome - The food supply chain is on course to overtake farming and land use as the largest contributor to greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the agri-food system in many countries, due to rapid growth driven by food processing, packaging, transport, retail, household consumption, waste…