On 8 August in Geneva, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will present its Special Report on Climate Change and Land - a report that NGOs are eagerly awaiting to convince governments and other stakeholders to take stronger action on climate, forests, soil, biodiversity and sustainable food systems.
This report will assess the latest scientific knowledge on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security and greenhouse gas flows in terrestrial ecosystems.
In the meantime, the NGO CAN (Climate Action Network) called on all governments on Tuesday 30 July to urgently adopt policies and commitments that end deforestation, promote sustainable land use, protect forests, restore ecosystems and guarantee the land rights of small farmers and indigenous communities. According to CAN, such measures represent “well over one-third of the solution to the climate crisis and can close the mitigation gap” between the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) under consideration and what is required to keep global warming below 1.5°C.
The IPCC report should give more weight to existing science, to the last report on global warming of 1.5°C and to the IPBES’ global biodiversity assessment. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)