News

UNU-LRT participated in a side event at the Climate Conference (COP21) in Paris, France, this week. The title of the side event was Desertification and Land Restoration – The Climate Connection. The side event focused on the challenges of land degradation, the goal of a land degradation-neutral world, the benefits of soil carbon sequestration and the importance of land restoration capacity building. UNU-LRT Director, Dr Hafdis Hanna Aegisdottir, gave a talk on the importance of training people to become change agents in order to combat land degradation, restore degraded land and mitigate and adapt to climate change. Ms Monique Barbut, the Executive Secretary of UNCCD, linked climate change and land degradation neutrality in her talk and emphasized the importance of land for us to be able to reach the goals of the other Rio conventions (CBD and FCCC) and for reaching the Global Goals.

To celebrate the International Year of Soils 2015, UNU-LRT has throughout this year organised short public meetings on issues related to soils, in partnership with the Soil Conservation Service of Iceland and the UN Association in Iceland. In those meetings topics such as soils & food, soils & education, soils & economy, and soils & cities have been covered. This week a seminar was held to mark the International Year of Soils where the importance of soils was discussed expansively and in connection to the new Global Goals for sustainable development. In the meeting the importance of soils and ecosystem restoration to reach the Global Goals and to fight climate change (goal #13) was emphasized. A panel of people from different arenas of society shared their thoughts on how they believe individuals as well as communities, nations and corporations could contribute to solving the pressing global issues related to soils and land health, which have a direct link to climate change.