Synergise UN conventions on climate change, land desertification, biodiversity: India

India believes in synergising the three UN conventions on climate change, land desertification and biodiversity to achieve the land degradation neutrality target, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Friday.

On the concluding day of the two-week-long 14th Conference of Parties to the UNCCD, Javadekar said, the New Delhi Declaration, to be adopted shortly, is an ambitious statement on global action by each country on how to achieve the target of land degradation neutrality.

"India believes that there has to be synergy among the three conventions of climate change, desertification and biodiversity.

"Land is an asset for the growing population. The New Delhi Declaration is an ambitious statement if global action by each country for achieving LDN. The COP was successful without any controversy," Javadekar said.

Land degradation neutrality or LDN is a process by which the value of the biophysical environment is affected by a combination of human-induced processes acting upon the land. It is viewed as any change or disturbance to the land perceived to be deleterious or undesirable.

Addressing the media on the last day of the conference, which began on September 2 in Greater Noida, UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw said the world will see more frequent and severe droughts due to climate change and land desertification, and called for businesses to invest in degraded land.

"We have woken up to the fact that we will see more frequent and severe droughts, a phenomenon that will be exacerbated by climate change and land degradation.

"We are inviting businesses to invest in degraded land and the investments be incentivised," Thiaw said.