Spain will become the host on June 17 on the occasion of Desertification and Drought Day 2022. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has announced that Madrid will host this global celebration that this year has the slogan “Overcoming droughts together”. The event will focus on highlighting the urgency of adopting policies and measures at local, regional and global levels to avoid the worst effects of desertification.

On June 17, Spain will become the venue on the occasion of Desertification and Drought Day 2022. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has announced that Madrid will host this global celebration that this year has the slogan “Overcoming droughts together”. The event will focus on highlighting the urgency of adopting policies and measures at local, regional and global levels to avoid the worst effects of desertification.

The Vice-President of the Government and Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, thanked Spain for choosing to host this year’s Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. “It is an honour to host an event that brings to the fore the threat posed by droughts to millions of people and ecosystems around the world. Only by working together can we overcome its devastating impacts. We must start preparing today to protect ourselves from tomorrow’s droughts,” he stressed.

Between 1900 and 2019, droughts affected 2,700 million people around the planet and caused 11.7 million deaths. According to current projections, by 2050 droughts could affect more than three-quarters of the world’s population.

Therefore, among the main priorities of the fifteenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNCCD (COP15), which will take place from 9 to 20 May 2022 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, will be the discussion on the adoption of adaptation measures for drought and improved resilience at the global level.

The annual celebration of the Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, officially declared by the United Nations General Assembly in 1997, aims to highlight actions to raise public awareness of this problem. It also seeks to demonstrate that it is possible to effectively combat desertification and drought, that solutions exist and that the key tools to achieve this lie in strengthening community participation and cooperation at all levels. Lastly, it sought to strengthen the implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa.

The most recent scientific forecasts warn that droughts will become more frequent and severe in the future , which have led governments to focus on adopting stronger and more coherent international measures and commitments with this scenario. Since 2017, the UNCCD and its partners have supported around 70 drought-vulnerable countries in developing national action plans to reduce drought-related disasters.