On 17 August, delegates from scores of nations will file into conference halls in Ulaanbaatar, the Mongolian capital, to begin one of the least-watched climate gatherings on the UN calendar — and one that has rarely mattered more. The 17th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) opens as wildfires tear through North America and southern Europe, heatwaves press down on hundreds of millions across Asia, and the World Food Programme warns that a strengthening El Niño could push 50 million additional people into hunger. Against that backdrop, negotiators will work to allocate more than $12 billion in pledges made two years ago to help vulnerable countries manage drought and land degradation. The UNCCD has long been the weakest of three environmental treaties born at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Its two siblings — the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which anchors the Paris Agreement, and the Convention on Biological Diversity — have commanded far greater attention and funding. For three decades, land restoration and drought prevention remained chronically underfunded and inconsistently managed. Yasmine Fouad, the UNCCD's executive secretary, argued that this was now changing with speed. "At the heart of our discussion is the topic of food security," she said.

"The more you work on restoring land, the more you have productive soil to ensure food security." One of the more striking shifts involves Saudi Arabia. The kingdom, which has repeatedly blocked references to fossil-fuel phase-outs at climate talks, has emerged as an enthusiastic financial backer of the desertification convention, having hosted its Cop16 summit in 2024 and pledged hundreds of millions of dollars toward its goals.