UNCCD COP15: India seeks change in consumption habits to protect land and combat desertification

NEW DELHI: With the UN body's two back-to-back reports on land degradation and drought presenting a bleak future for humanity in business as usual scenario, India on Wednesday appealed to the rich to change their "consumption habits", saying the world will continue to put tremendous pressures on land without shunning the high consumption lifestyle of a global minority among countries.
"The three conventions on climate change, biodiversity and combating desertification are all linked by the high consumption lifestyle of a global minority among countries....Urgently reducing their profligate emissions is key to the success of all these three conventions," said environment minister Bhupender Yadav while addressing 15th session (COP15) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) conference at Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
Delivering India's national statement, he said, "I would again like to emphasize that our recovery process needs to awaken change at the individual level by changing our consumption habits, without which we will continue to put tremendous pressures on land."
Calling for action to ensure that land is sustainably managed and continues to benefit present and future generations, Yadav said, "We will need to appropriately align our policies and institutions such that they contribute towards the restoration of landscapes and its productivity."
India also handed over the presidency of the COP to the host west African nation, Côte d’Ivoire. The last global conference (COP14) on combating desertification was held in India in September, 2019. The minister during his address on Wednesday also shared the details of works done during the country's presidency of the COP in past two years.
The COP15 is being held to focus on restoration of 1 billion hectares of degraded land between now and 2030, and tackling escalating droughts, sand and dust storms, wildfires and other disaster risks.
More than a dozen heads of state and government, ministers, and at least 2,000 delegates from 196 countries and the European Union, are attending the Conference which will conclude on May 20.