 "Taklamakan desert, Xinjiang, China, tunnel")
The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD) is Rio’s Stepchild, we said. Why? Because it was a neglected and frankly unwanted agreement, signed by the world at the Rio Conference in 1992. It was agreed because African and other developing countries wanted it. It was a sop — give them the crumbs of an agreement, which the rich world did not understand or believe in. In Rio, climate change was the top agenda. Next came the issue of biodiversity conservation — a resource largely surviving in the countries of the South, which need to be conserved and access secured.
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