Commitments made at One Planet Summit to LDN Fund start pouring in

Bonn, 14 December 2017 – French President Emmanuel Macron announced in his closing statement Tuesday that the Land Degradation Neutrality Fund is one of the 12 global initiatives that will be supported under the One Planet Summit, stating that protecting land and water resources from the effects of climate change would the second of the Summit’s 12 engagements.

“Here, several concrete measures have been taken to mobilize the 300 million United States dollars needed to activate the Land Degradation Neutrality Fund, that is, the Fund to combat land degradation and desertification. France, Canada and other partners announced funds to realize actions aiming to reading land degradation neutrality by 2030, an attainable objective if in the next few weeks we can raise the USD300 million needed to realize the fund.”

The LDN Fund was one of 10 Projects the One Planet Summit had identified as "Projects for our planet."

Canada’s Fondaction, a retirement savings plan by workers in Quebec, followed swiftly with an announcement yesterday that it will contribute USD10 million to the Fund, making it the first private sector investor to join the Fund.

“Fondaction is joining the European Investment Bank, French Agency for Development, the Government of Luxembourg, Global Environment Facility, WWF Global Fund and French Foundation which have so far contributed a total of USD100 million,” said Leopold Beaulieu, President and Director-General of Fondaction.

“Combatting land degradation is one of the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. Fondaction is a Fund for workers, whose since inception in 1996, is to encourage the creation and maintenance of jobs with a perspective of sustainable development. Today, all of our investments aim to encourage, promote and support sustainable development. The knowledge and expertise we have gained over more than 20 years explains why we are the first private investor to respond favorably to the LDN Fund initiative,” he added.

President Macron also announced actions in agricultural and solar technologies that would enhance the UNCCD’s global efforts to ensure that by 2030 and going forward, the amount of degraded land is equivalent to or less that the land we had degraded by 2015 when the Sustainable Development Goals were adopted.

Macron's full closing statement and the announcement by Fondaction are accessible via the links below.

Statement by President Macron

Press Release by Fondaction

For more information contact: squatrini [at] unccd.int (squatrini[at]unccd[dot]int)