Just over 75 percent of the world's land has been left "permanently drier" over the previous three decades, a UN-backed report has found. The data coincides with Cop16 talks on desertification held in Saudi Arabia until Friday.
Dry land now covers around 40 percent of the Earth's land mass, excluding Antarctica, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) study found, cautioning the shift could affect up to five billion people by 2100.
"Some 77.6 percent of Earth's land experienced drier conditions during the three decades leading up to 2020 compared to the previous 30-year period," the report said.
It indicates an "existential threat" posed by the seemingly irreversible trends and showed that dry land - regions where agriculture is difficult -- increased by 4.3 million square kilometres between 1990 and 2020, an area a third the size of India.
The warning comes during a 12-day meeting in Riyadh, which began last week, for the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties (Cop16) under the UNCCD and seeks to protect and restore land and respond to drought amid ongoing climate change.
Aridity, a chronic shortage of water, now extends over 40.6 percent of the Earth's land mass, again excluding Antarctica, compared with 37.5 percent 30 years ago, the report warns.
Unrelenting transformation
It also cautions the areas most affected include the nations bordering the Mediterranean, southern Africa, southern Australia and certain regions of Asia and Latin America.
"For the first time, the aridity crisis has been documented with scientific clarity, revealing an existential threat," said Ibrahim Thiaw, UNCCD Executive Secretary.
"Unlike droughts – temporary periods of low rainfall – aridity represents a permanent, unrelenting transformation," he said.
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"The drier climates now affecting vast lands across the globe will not return to how they were and this change is redefining life on Earth," he added.
The changes are largely attributed to global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions, which alter rainfall and increase evaporation, the report said.
Jean-Luc Chotte, president of the French Scientific Committee on Desertification, told RFI that the UN report will allow countries to anticipate and react to the effects of desertification in the medium and long term.
Chotte says the new data from the report enables a projection of aridity, in the face of global development and "reinforces the need to find solutions and adapt," be it in terms of agricultural practices and the varieties of plants adapted to drought conditions.
France makes declaration
However, he warns that as new land becomes progressively arid, "today's solutions may no longer be effective tomorrow".
France for the first time, officially declared itself "affected by desertification, land degradation and drought", bringing the total number of nations to 170.
For Thani Mohamed-Soilihi, the Secretary of State for Francophone countries and International Partnerships, France's announcement at Cop16 "sends a message of solidarity to the most vulnerable countries", overriding the view that desertification is predominantly an African issue.
Crippling drought forces drastic water cuts in French territory Mayotte
According to the French scientific committee on desertification, around 1 percent of the country's territory is affected, notably the Mediterranean rim and southern Corsica, as well as the overseas territories of Reunion Island, Guadeloupe and Mayotte.
In Mayotte, where drought has been rife for years, water cuts have been extended to cope with an increase in consumption.
Mainland France notably experienced an unprecedented drought in 2022, with a rainfall deficit of 25 percent, making it the second least rainy year since 1959.
Forced migration to increase
"For the first time, a UN scientific body is warning that burning fossil fuels is causing permanent drying across much of the world," lead UNCCD Chief Scientist Barron Orr said.
He added this could have "potentially catastrophic impacts affecting access to water that could push people and nature even closer to disastrous tipping points".
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The effects of the chronic water shortages include soil degradation, ecosystem collapse, food insecurity and forced migration, according to the scientists.
Already, 2.3 billion people live in expanding dry areas, according to the report, with projections showing a "worst-case scenario" of five billion people living in the conditions as the planet continues to warm.
To counter this trend, the scientists urged members to "integrate aridity metrics into existing drought monitoring systems", improve soil and water management, and "build resilience in vulnerable communities".
(with newswires)
