Droughts cost the world nearly €300 billion a year, the UN warned today on the second day of COP16 on desertification in Saudi Arabia, in a report calling for urgent investment in nature-based solutions , such as reforestation.

Droughts, fueled by climate change and an unsustainable management of water and land resources, are expected to affect 75% of the world’s population by 2050, according to a UN report released today titled ” Drought Economy: Investing in Nature-Based Solutions for Drought Resilience’.

The report shows how these nature-based solutions, such as ‘reforestation’ or ‘rangeland management’, can simultaneously reduce losses and increase farm incomes while offering climate and environmental benefits.

A 2020 study published in the scientific journal Global Change Biology concluded that “nature-based investments often prove to be as effective, if not more effective” 59% of the time, “than other interventions to combat consequences of climate change”.

2024, which will almost certainly be the hottest year ever recorded on Earth, was marked by several catastrophic droughts in the Mediterranean, Ecuador, Brazil, Morocco, Namibia, Malawi, which caused fires, water shortages and food.

Their costs “go beyond immediate agricultural losses, have consequences for entire supply chains, reduce the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), impact livelihoods and cause problems in the long term, such as hunger, unemployment, migration”, underlined Kaveh Madani, one of the authors of the report and director of the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH).

“Sustainably managing our land and water resources is vital to boosting economic growth and strengthening the resilience of communities caught in a cycle of drought,” said Andrea Mesa, Deputy Executive Secretary of the Convention. of the UN to Combat Desertification (CNULCD).

Her agency is the one organizing COP16 being held this week in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“As talks are underway for a historic solution to the drought, the report calls on world leaders to recognize the excessive and preventable costs of droughts and use proactive, nature-based solutions to ensure human development within the planet’s limits.” , Mesa concluded.