New York, United States – During the High Level Political Forum on sustainable development, a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the International Solar Alliance (ISA) to highlight the crucial role of affordable, reliable and sustainable energy for sound land management and inclusive economic growth.
The signatories declared their intention to undertake the following initiatives:
- Spearhead transformative projects and programmes linking sustainable land management with solar energy development that would help achieve specific social, economic and environmental outcomes;
- Promote innovative financial mechanisms such as the LDN Fund that bring together private sector investors and firms to support investments to address land degradation and promote solar energy to ensure sustainable development;
- Work with other partners in bringing together public and private investments and partnerships to scale up solar energy development and contribute to address land degradation and desertification.
The ISA is a treaty-based inter-governmental organization that unites more than 120 countries to work for efficient exploitation of solar energy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. ISA’s ambitious goals include facilitating infrastructure for implementation of solar projects, making the costs of solar power more affordable for remote and inaccessible communities and mobilizing finance globally for the massive deployment of affordable solar energy.
Established in 1994, UNCCD is the sole legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management. The Convention addresses specifically the arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, known as the drylands, where some of the most vulnerable ecosystems and peoples can be found.
Original article taken from: https://bit.ly/2LkP1RB
Source: UN Bonn, 26.07.2018