Highlights and images for 13 September 2019

Summary

Highlights for Friday, 13 September 2019

Family photo of the COP Presidency and the UNCCD Secretariat at the end of the meeting

The Committee of the Whole (COW) contact group convened in the morning to finalize negotiations of draft decisions on drought, and integration of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development. In the afternoon the COW convened its closing plenary and adopted the final set of 11 decisions prepared by the group.Thereafter, delegates convened the final plenary of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to adopt the outcomes of the conference.In his closing remarks, COP President Prakash Javadekar expressed India’s commitment to contribute to the implementation of the UNCCD, through, among other actions: establishing a center of excellence to promote knowledge on core themes of the Convention and contribute to South-South Exchange; raising its 2030 land restoration target from 21 million hectares to 26 million hectares; and steering the land agenda at the global level.UNCCD Executive Secretary, Ibrahim Thiaw, highlighted four messages from COP 14:

Delivering a clear message to the upcoming Climate Week New York 2019 that land restoration is one of the cheapest solutions for climate change, biodiversity loss and multiple SDGs;

Making a clear business case for investing in land restoration and sustainable value chains, while underscoring that attracting the private sector will require regulatory frameworks and market incentives;

Recognizing the importance of drought and the need to support affected parties to better mitigate and manage risks; and

Putting people at the heart of the Convention’s agenda through the decision on land tenure.

Following closing statements by representatives of regional groups and civil society, COP President Javadekar declared COP 14 closed at 6.50 pm.

IISD Reporting Services, through its ENB meeting coverage, provided daily web coverage and daily reports from UNCCD COP 14. In addition, IISD Reporting Services has published a summary and analysis report from this session, which is now available in HTML and PDF.

Photos by IISD/ENB | Ángeles Estrada

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Committee of the Whole

Pradeep Monga, UNCCD Deputy Executive Secretary; Committee of the Whole (COW) Chair Trevor Benn; Sharma Sangeeta, COW Secretary; and Jeroen van Dalen, UNCCD Secretariat

Marioldy Sanchez Santivañez, AIDER, Peru

Franz Breitwieser, Austria

Imad Almaree, Syria, and Abdul Rahim Loulou, Arab Center for the Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Lands, Syria

Juan Riet, Interdisciplinary Center for Studies on Development, Uruguay, and Octavio Pérez Pardo, Colegio de Ingenieros Agronómicos de Santiago del Estero

Sharma Sangeeta, COW Secretary, and Jeroen van Dalen, UNCCD Secretariat

View of the room during the closing of the COW

José Felix Pinto-Bazurco, IISD-RS, Peru, and Edgar Gutiérrez Espeleta, Costa Rica

Closing Ceremony

COW Chair Trevor Benn; Pradeep Monga, UNCCD Deputy Executive Secretary; Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary, UNCCD; COP 14 President, Prakash Javadekar; Carmen Margina and Rajeb Boulharouf, UNCCD Secretariat