Highlights and images for 28 August 2026

It’s been a bumpy ride. Since its first day, the seventeenth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP 17) has been marred by tensions stemming from the blocking of agenda items and large distances between delegation positions. Throughout the last two weeks, Parties have met for long hours, at times late into the night, to find compromises on pressing issues that are devastating peoples’ livelihoods, threatening food and water security, and forcing people to relocate for their own survival. 

On the final day, delegates continued struggling to find ways forward in contact groups. Owing to the flexibility of delegates, determination of the facilitators, and the tireless efforts of the Presidency in informal consultations, the previously heavily bracketed texts slowly began getting cleaned up. 

The Committee of the Whole (COW), Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC), and Committee on Science and Technology (CST) Plenaries met in the morning. While the former two did so to forward texts to the COP Plenary, the latter opened with the Russian Federation withdrawing its objection to agenda items resulting from the work programme of the Science-Policy Interface for the biennium 2025–2026. The item was then sent to the CST contact group. The Closing Plenary opened at 11:17 am to adopt, inter alia, the declarations of the Mayors’ Forum, Youth Forum, Indigenous Peoples, and Local Communities. It was then suspended, pending the outcome of ongoing consultations in the contact groups.

The contact groups of the COW and CST finished their work shortly after six in the evening, but participants had to wait another two hours before the contact group of the CRIC wrapped up its work. 

Apart from agenda items on gender, civil society, and synergies with other multilateral conventions that the USA blocked on the first day of the COP, further discussions on the decisions of four agenda items were postponed until the next COP: 

• Drought;
• Migration; 
• Synergistically supporting aridity and drought planning and adaptation; and
• Knowledge sharing, technology transfer, and innovation. 

In closing statements, many expressed regret about the absence of discussions on some topics, and the lack of progress on others. Many also reiterated the importance of multilateral action and cooperation, given that land-related challenges “know no borders.” COP 17 President Batmunkh Battsetseg said that she looked forward to working with countries to continue furthering the implementation of the Convention to tackle desertification, land degradation, and drought in the intersessional period. 

A moment of silence was held to express condolences to the people of Nepal and China in light of the recent deadly flash floods.

The meeting was gaveled to a close at 2:36 am.