UN says worldwide drought costs $300 billion annually

On the second day of international negotiations on desertification in Saudi Arabia, the United Nations released a study stating that drought damages the planet more than $300 billion annually.

Driven by “human destruction of the environment,” the report warned that drought is expected to afflict 75 percent of the planet’s population by 2050.

It claimed that the crisis has already cost around $307 billion yearly worldwide.

Under the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the warning corresponds with a 12-day conference in Riyadh for the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP16), aimed at safeguarding and restoring land and addressing drought amid continuous climate change.

To help the environment and lower the cost of dessication, the UN advocated investment in “nature-based solutions,” including “reforestation, grazing management, and the management, restoration, and conservation of watersheds.”

Devastating droughts in Ecuador, Brazil, Namibia, Malawi, and countries bordering the Mediterranean, which ignited fires and caused food and water shortages, are likely to make 2024 the warmest year on record.

“Drought’s economic cost goes beyond only immediate agricultural losses. According to Kaveh Madani, the co-author of the UN report, drought affects entire supply chains, lowers GDP, influences livelihoods, causes hunger, unemployment, migration, and creates long-term human security issues.

Senior UNCCD official Andrea Meza Murillo said, “Managing our land and water resources in a sustainable way is essential to stimulate economic growth and strengthen the resilience of communities trapped in cycles of drought.”

“As talks for a landmark COP decision on drought are underway, the report calls on world leaders to recognize the outsized, and preventable, costs of drought and to use proactive and nature-based solutions to secure human development inside planetary boundaries,” she said.