As delegates await the adoption of the final text and resolutions of the two-week-long COP17 negotiations in Mongolia, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), Yasmine Fouad, has said the conference must translate commitments into concrete action.
Ms Fouad made the remarks while speaking with six UNCCD media fellows on the sidelines of the COP17 conference in Ulaanbaatar on Friday.
She described COP17 as the “COP of implementation,” stressing that the true measure of success would be whether decisions taken at the conference lead to action on the ground.
“Rest assured that COP17 is the COP of implementation. And here, implementation can mean one of two things: either what we put on paper to implement, or simply putting things on paper while remaining far away from actual implementation,” she said.
Ms Fouad said the conference was taking place against a backdrop of mounting geopolitical and environmental challenges, including increasing heatwaves and drought.
