Negotiators at UNCCD COP 17 will consider a wide array of decisions on enhancing efforts to address desertification, land degradation and drought.

In sharing the latest science on agriculture and food systems to give targeted inputs to the IPCC’s Seventh Assessment Report, experts urged moving beyond simply identifying adaptation options and focusing also on adaptation effectiveness, residual risks, adaptation limits, and the cost of inaction.

The successful end of 18 months of negotiations for the ninth replenishment of the GEF Trust Fund “represents a renewed vote of confidence in multilateralism, in the GEF partnership, and in the importance of the global environment.” Many also urged prioritizing the private sector’s involvement and participants pointed to the vast finance gap all MEAs face.