Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification; four decades of career in environment and development. National of Mauritania; first served as senior civil servant; also served as a specialist, a manager and an executive leader (Director-General ad interim) with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Switzerland and in Burkina Faso. Joined the United Nations in 2007. First with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) serving respectively as Division Director and Deputy Executive Director, before being appointed as Special Adviser of the Secretary-General of the UN for the Sahel (based in Dakar), and finally as Executive Secretary of the UNCCD (Bonn, Germany). Passionate about sustainable development issues, notably how environmental degradation affects human well-being in developed and developing countries. Sustainable production and consumption, ecosystem services and the synergies between climate change, biodiversity and land degradation.
With 3 COPs, 2024 is a year of opportunity for biodiversity conservation, climate action and land restoration. These are key to securing planetary health.
COP16 will highlight how drought, desertification and land degradation threaten our ecosystems and economies. How can we get businesses to invest in land?
Businesses should transition towards sustainable land use to help meet global net-zero commitments, benefit consumers and increase their own viability.
By 2050, 90% of land could become degraded. Businesses can take action now to reverse land degradation and restore the healthy ecosystems they depend upon.
Attention is turning away from old-style 'debt-for-nature swaps' to new instruments like 'nature performance bonds' that could help achieve climate goals.
Une source d'énergie fiable est tout aussi importante qu'un sol propice à l'agriculture.
Recent innovations mean that bioenergy has a clear role to play in the future, argues UN Under-Secretary-General, Ibrahim Thiaw.
