Seventy-ninth session
Item 18 j) of the provisional agenda*
Sustainable development
Summary
The present report, submitted pursuant to General Assembly resolution 78/158 on combating sand and dust storms, details developments within the United Nations system since the publication of the Secretary-General’s last report on this topic (A/78/237) and covers the period from mid-2023 to mid-2024.
The report highlights the activities and initiatives of United Nations organizations and Member States, as well as a range of stakeholders, and highlights achievements during the reporting period in four main areas: cross-cutting activities, monitoring, forecasting and early warning, impact mitigation, vulnerability and resilience, and source mitigation.
Sand and dust storms continue to pose a transboundary threat to livelihoods and numerous socio-economic sectors, jeopardising the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and related targets.
The United Nations Coalition to Combat Sand and Dust Storms was established at the fourteenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Countries Affected by Severe Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa, in September 2019, in response to General Assembly resolution 72/225 of 2017, and continued its efforts during the reporting period to move to the implementation phase, a process to be accelerated through increased financial and human resources. United Nations entities also continued to make progress in specific areas of work.
I. Introduction
1. In its resolution 78/158 on combating sand and dust storms, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to submit to it at its seventy-ninth session a report on the implementation of the resolution and encouraged relevant United Nations entities and donors, within their respective mandates and resources, to continue to provide capacity-building and technical assistance to combat and prevent sand and dust storms and to continue to support the implementation of national, regional and global action plans of affected countries. The Assembly also requested the Secretary-General to continue to encourage the United Nations Coalition to Combat Sand and Dust Storms to carry out its priority activities as identified by the Coalition’s five working groups, namely knowledge sharing, capacity-building, training, awareness-raising and support in the development of national, regional and interregional plans to mitigate and prevent sand and dust storm hazards, and to encourage the Coalition to increase its resource mobilization efforts to increase voluntary contributions to the Coalition and its member organizations. This report describes developments since the publication of the Secretary-General’s sixth report on this topic (A/78/237) and covers the period from mid-2023 to mid-2024.
2. Sand and dust storms are increasingly recognized as a problem of international concern. Sand and dust storms continue to pose a variety of hazards to human society in numerous parts of the world. In some regions of the world, there is evidence of an increase in the intensity of sand and dust storms in recent years,1 while in other regions their frequency has decreased.2 There is a need to assess possible global trends in the frequency and intensity of sand and dust storms and to examine possible links with recent changes in land use and climate, as the last global assessment dates from 2016.3 Problems associated with sand and dust storms include loss of soil in agricultural areas, disruption of air, road, rail and maritime transport, loss of solar power output from photovoltaic systems, closure of schools and businesses, and an increase in respiratory diseases and hospital emergencies. These hazards pose a significant challenge to the achievement of sustainable development in its three dimensions – economic, social and environmental. Consequently, combating the negative impacts of sand and dust storms will contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and related targets adopted under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (General Assembly resolution 70/1). To ensure that global efforts towards sustainable development are not undermined by the multidimensional impacts of sand and dust storms, an understanding of disaster risks and the development and implementation of appropriate preparedness, response and recovery measures to build resilience are needed, as set out in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (General Assembly resolution 69/283, annex II) and the political declaration of the high-level meeting on the mid-term review of the Sendai Framework (General Assembly resolution 77/289, annex).
3. This report provides information and updates on global efforts to combat sand and dust storms in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, drawing on contributions from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the ESCAP Asian and Pacific Centre for Disaster Information Management Development, the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Bank, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Countries Affected by Severe Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa, and the World Health Organization (WHO).
