COP17 of UNCCD Opens in Mongolia

On 17th August 2026, the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) opened in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, with calls to turn land-restoration commitments into concrete action, finance and institutional support.

Key Points

Theme: COP17 is being held under the theme “Restoring Land, Restoring Hope”.
Venue: The conference is being hosted by Mongolia in Ulaanbaatar from 17 to 28 August 2026.
Implementation Focus: The conference seeks to move beyond declarations towards financing and implementation of land-restoration commitments.
Land Restoration: Countries have pledged to restore around 1 billion hectares of degraded land.
Degradation Gap: Globally, around 1.5–2 billion hectares of land are estimated to be degraded.
Unresolved Issue: COP17 will revisit negotiations on a global drought framework that remained unresolved at COP16 in Riyadh.
COP16: Countries failed to reach agreement on a legally binding drought protocol at COP16.