COP16 report warns three-quarters of global land 'permanently drier'

AFP | Riyadh

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Just over 75 percent of the world's land has been left "permanently drier" over the previous three decades, a UNbacked report coinciding with COP16 talks on desertification in Saudi Arabia said on Monday.

Dry land now covers around 40 percent of the Earth's land mass, excluding Antarctica, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) study found, cautioning the shift could affect up to five billion people by 2100.

"Some 77.6 percent of Earth's land experienced drier conditions during the three decades leading up to 2020 compared to the previous 30-year period," the report said. It indicates an "existential threat" posed by the seemingly irreversible trends and showed that dry land -- regions where agriculture is difficult -- increased by 4.3 million square kilometres (1.7 million square miles) between 1990 and 2020, an area a third the size of India.

The warning comes during a 12-day meeting in Riyadh, which began last week, for the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP16) under the UNCCD and seeks to protect and restore land and respond to drought amid ongoing climate change.