COP17 in Mongolia Concludes with $1.3 Billion Green Investment Pledge to Combat Desertification

After 12 days of intense debates and negotiations in the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar, delegates from 197 parties representing 196 countries and the European Union who signed the United Nations Convention for Combating Desertification concluded the Conference of Parties (COP17) with significant results.

Unlike previous COP conferences, achieving full unanimity on legally binding, comprehensive documents proved particularly challenging in the current climate, where major powers increasingly question the core principles of multilateralism. However, the Convention represents an ongoing process, and from the start, host nation Mongolia and the United Nations urged for concrete, tangible outcomes from COP17.

“Today, the time has come for us to ask ourselves a bold and candid question – we have spoken at length and made many declarations, but have we been able to turn our words into action? The previous events all brought meaningful outcomes. But, the truth is that the world has never lacked goals and commitments. What we need more urgently are the resources, financing, technology, and institutional environment to turn those commitments into tangible results,” stated Mongolian Prime Minister Nyam-Osoryn Uchral.

So, did COP17 actually deliver tangible results?

Raising awareness of land degradation

Forty percent of the planet’s usable, arable land is affected by land degradation, slowly turning into barren desert. This crisis directly impacts 3.2 billion people worldwide. From the opening of COP17, officials and delegates warned that global communities often overlook how land degradation underlies obvious issues such as mass migration, wildfires, and droughts.

“Desertification can simply cause a food crisis because once your land is degraded, you will not be able to plant, creating both food and water security problems, leading to migration and displacement. Here, people are not given a choice whether they will leave their land, yes or no; they have nothing to sustain their livelihood and give them resilience. Add to that the impact of drought, climate change, and the loss of biodiversity, and it all adds to the problem of desertification,” noted Yasmine Fouadh, Executive Secretary of the UNCCD.

“We will not be able to resolve any of our issues without working on the land. Ninety percent of our food comes from the land, 99.8% of our calories come from the land, our cities and on land, our villages and farms are on land, rivers, lakes, all the freshwater lie on the land. And that land also stores three times more carbon dioxide than there is in the atmosphere,” warned Dr. Osama Faqeeha, advisor to COP16 in Riyadh.

Raising funds for restoration

During COP16 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, mechanisms were initiated to bring together financial institutions, banks, and private equity to invest in land protection and sustainable agriculture projects. This is viable because such projects can be profitable, particularly those focusing on water utilization and sustainable agriculture.

The Convention estimates that inaction on land degradation costs the world nearly $900 billion annually, while investment in healthy land could generate up to $1.8 trillion through food production, water provision, and carbon storage. Yet, current investment remains modest.

“If you look at how much money goes into artificial intelligence, it is the same amount of money that goes into climate financing – two trillion dollars a year. But, when you double-click on climate financing, less than 3% goes into land and water. It is way under-invested. And the white-paper we published puts forward reasons why businesses can actually invest into land and water. It can bring returns – every dollar you put into land brings $8 to $30 in exchange,” said Gim Huay Neo, Managing Director of the World Economic Forum.

This is why governments, development banks, and private investors announced one of the biggest successes of COP17: $1.3 billion in new and pipeline financing for land restoration and drought resilience across 23 countries on five continents.

Of the $1.3 billion announced, $644.5 million has been identified as new finance, while $216.4 million has already been confirmed and is moving toward implementation, the UNCCD noted. The announcement highlights the immense financing gaps in meeting global land restoration commitments.

“There is a huge gap in the funding for land preservation. Annually, about $355 billion is needed but we have only about $70 billion, so we miss around $280 billion,” noted Deputy Prime Minister of Mongolia Togmid Dorjkhand, who chaired the ministerial session on finance.

“The governments have raised over a billion dollars for projects, and in the afternoon session, we got the private sector involved, and another 1.3 billion were discussed, so all in all, about $2.1 billion are on the table. COP17 has been a success in that financial part,” explained Dorjkhand.

A significant portion of fundraising came from direct talks between financial institutions and governments. Mongolia seized the opportunity to propose favorable conditions for opening data centers across its vast territory, highlighting the low cost of energy, 40% savings on cooling due to harsh winters, and the fact that 98% of land in Mongolia is state-owned, which simplifies construction.

“But this is not the only thing that Mongolia offers; there are also legal advantages. We have just proposed a so-called Digital Law which guarantees data sovereignty. It basically turns data centers into data embassies in which both data and connectivity guarantee safety and security. So, we hope that this will be attractive to those who want to build data centers to serve the largest market, China, but still keep their data outside China,” explained Mongolian Minister of Digital Development Chinbat Nomin.

Networking, planning, and making commitments

COP17 hosted hundreds of events, with many countries establishing pavilions on the grounds. Major projects were presented, like the Chinese “Green Wall of China,” a mega-project involving the planting of billions of trees to combat desertification.

Countries most affected by desertification had the biggest presence. Among them was the host country, Mongolia, where 77% of land is already degraded and where the Gobi Desert “swallows” thousands of hectares every year.

“There are many problems that countries share, and we all learn from each other here,” said Bakhtiyor Pulatov, Rector of the Central Asian University of Environmental and Climate Change Studies. “Uzbekistan has established a scientific approach to solving the problem of land degradation because it is serious in our country – more than 70% of the territory is already desert or turning into one. So, we established many systems, like an early warning system for sand and dust storms. There is also the initiative of our president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, to plant a billion saxaul trees in deserts, which is working well. We also opened the only university that studies environmental issues because we believe in science, and we are ready to share. Our pavilion here is open to countries that have similar problems.”

The Mayor of Ulaanbaatar hosted the first Mayor’s Forum during COP17, gathering participants from 30 countries, including around 30 mayors, governors, and other local and regional leaders. They signed a joint declaration, exchanged experiences, and agreed to be involved in national government negotiations, as they will be the ones implementing solutions to combat desertification. Within 90 days, they will also create a network of cities in dryland and extreme climate areas.

All countries under the UNCCD have made national agendas. More than ever, they came to Ulaanbaatar with their own initiatives. In Riyadh, there were 35 initiatives and real national agendas, which continued into 2025 and 2026, and here in Mongolia, we have 200, or exactly 198 initiatives under the Riyadh Action Agenda, noted Dr. Osama Faqeeha. During the 12 days in Ulaanbaatar, alliances were forged, such as that between China and the League of Arab States, who made a joint five-year plan of cooperation to restore land.

Where politics meets life

Summits of this kind can often feel distant from the real lives of the people whose problems are being discussed. Negotiations are mostly behind closed doors and end in documents whose bureaucratic and expert language is difficult to understand.

A day into the conference, the so-called Green Zone, open to the general public, was inaugurated. More than 400 events were held in its halls, stages, and meeting points, visited by thousands of people who could see exhibitions from around 60 different organizations. This is where visitors met representatives of businesses, civil society, scientists, young people, entrepreneurs, and government agencies to see their projects, solutions, screenings, workshops, and cultural performances.

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