Highlights and images for 12 December 2024

The penultimate day of a Conference of the Parties (COP) is always fraught with anxiety and exhaustion. COP 16 to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was no exception. Contact group meetings continued throughout the day, but progress was slow. Even after the COP Bureau distributed new “rules of engagement” for contact groups, aimed at speeding up negotiations, it was not until after 6:00 pm that negotiators started to pick up the pace.

Want to dig deeper into today's talks? Read the full Earth Negotiations Bulletin daily report.

On a positive note, the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC) concluded its work and convened in an afternoon plenary session to adopt all eight decisions and forward them to the COP plenary.

Decisions included:

• Collaboration with the Global Environment Facility
• Assessment of financial flows
• Progress made in the mobilization of resources for the implementation of the Convention and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 15.3 matters
• Improving the procedures for the communication of information as well as the quality and formats of reports to be submitted to the Conference of the Parties
• Assessment of implementation of the Convention against the strategic objectives 1-4 of the 2018-2030 Strategic Framework of the UNCCD
• Promotion of capacity building to further the implementation of the Convention
• Date and venue for the twenty-third session of the CRIC 
• Programme of work for the twenty-third session of the CRIC 

The Committee on Science and Technology (CST) was unable to hold its closing plenary due to protracted negotiations on a newly-introduced decision on avoiding, reducing, and reversing land and soil degradation on agricultural lands.

The joint CST-CRIC contact group finalized negotiations on the draft decision on improving procedures for the communication of information, as well as the quality and format of reports. This decision is expected to be adopted in a joint CST-CRIC plenary on Friday.

Progress was much slower in the Committee of the Whole (COW) contact group. Delegates spent nearly nine hours on the draft decision on enhancing the implementation of the Convention and its 2018-2030 Strategic Framework.

Just before 6:00 pm, they announced the contact group would split into two: one to address the draft decision on drought and the other to finish the other remaining draft decisions. They hoped all work could be concluded Thursday night to allow the CST and the COW closing plenaries to convene on Friday to approve all the decisions and forward them to the COP for final adoption.

As the Secretariat provided a light dinner and other delegates brought in Arabic pastries to “sweeten” the atmosphere, delegates settled in for yet another late night.