'PM Modi to make good announcement on issue of land degradation'

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to make a "good announcement" on what the country intends to do on the issue of land degradation, the head of the UN entity tackling desertification said as India hosts a global summit on desertification and land degradation.

The 14th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (COP14) is underway in New Delhi with the theme of 'Investing in Land, Unlocking Opportunities'.

The COP14 summit, which runs through September 13, hosts ministers, scientists, government representatives, non-governmental organisations, and various community groups from 196 countries, in the hope of agreeing new actions to boost land fertility.

The Indian Prime Minister will preside over the opening ceremony of the high-level segment on September 9 and UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed will arrive in India on Saturday to participate in the high-level event.

Speaking to reporters at the UN headquarters by video link from India, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Ibrahim Thiaw said land restoration is "certainly the cheapest way" of addressing this issue of climate change and Mohammed, in her remarks to the summit on Monday, will make a very close link between land degradation and climate change.

India's Minister of Environment, Forest & Climate Change Prakash Javadekar has been elected earlier this week as President of the Conference of the Parties and he will be presiding over the body for the next two years, Thiaw said.

While Thiaw did not give details on what commitments India could make at the summit, he said at the working level in the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, "there is a big ambition that India has that they would address after the COP as part of their legacy to this entire process."
In addition to that, he said, "India may be facilitating the like-minded countries because the President of the COP has this as part of his work marked for the next two years. Therefore, India is actively engaged in building bridges between land and climate and biodiversity."
Thiaw further said that as the Minister in-charge of climate bio-diversity, and land degradation, Javadekar is in a good position to "help build synergies and cooperations between the conventions."