As the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification convenes in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from August 17 to 28, former Costa Rican Environment and Energy Minister Edgar E. Gutiérrez-Espeleta has delivered a clear verdict on what will define the summit's outcome. In an exclusive interview, the former UN Environment Assembly president and current senior policy advisor to the UNCCD emphasized that COP17 must become a "conference of implementation" — shifting from rhetoric to concrete action — with a global drought agreement serving as the definitive benchmark for success.

Gutiérrez-Espeleta, who has been instrumental in developing the International Drought Resilience Alliance and the Drought Resilience Index, stressed that this year's gathering carries enormous expectations. "The COP held in Mongolia is the 'conference of implementation.' We must transition from talk to action and genuinely alter the world's current trajectory," he stated, echoing the UNCCD secretariat's positioning. Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw has similarly characterized COP17 as the "implementation COP" while urging parties to reach consensus on a drought framework.

For the summit to be deemed successful, Gutiérrez-Espeleta argues it must deliver a final resolution on drought and drought resilience while making meaningful progress on financing mechanisms. "If we can say that COP17 reached a global agreement on drought, that would be a tremendous achievement," he remarked. As drought events become increasingly frequent and inflict growing damage on national economies worldwide, the issue has evolved into a matter of public interest, health, social welfare, and economic stability that demands urgent resolution.

This objective, however, represents one of the conference's most formidable challenges. At COP16 in Riyadh in 2024, parties failed to reach consensus on a legally binding drought agreement. While the African Group and others pushed for a binding protocol, alternative perspectives favored a non-binding framework. Those negotiations have now been deferred to Ulaanbaatar, where the ability of nations to bridge their differences will face its next critical test.

Beyond the drought agreement, Gutiérrez-Espeleta highlighted the importance of gender considerations, local community engagement, and indigenous participation in COP17 proceedings. "Although COPs under the UNCCD framework have traditionally been open to stakeholder involvement, I hope to see specific decisions addressing these groups," he noted. He also called for greater attention to livestock husbandry, given its substantial impact on global food production, while cautioning — as the seventh UN Environment Programme Global Environment Outlook report indicates — that meat protein consumption must be reduced because the environmental footprint of animal husbandry is "quite heavy, particularly regarding greenhouse gas emissions and accelerated land degradation."

The year 2026 marks the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, making grasslands and pastoral regions a central focus of the conference for the first time. According to UNCCD data, grasslands cover more than half of the world's land surface and sustain the livelihoods of approximately two billion people.

Financing stands as the other pivotal issue on the agenda. Reports indicate that COP17 will initiate the allocation of over $12 billion to assist vulnerable nations in addressing drought and land degradation. UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw has made clear that accelerating progress toward restoring one billion hectares of land by 2030, alongside expanding funding access through innovative mechanisms, are top priorities. Gutiérrez-Espeleta endorsed this approach: "We require substantial support from wealthy nations, financial institutions, and the private sector."

The financing gap remains staggering. UNCCD assessments project that global land restoration and drought resilience efforts will require approximately $355 billion annually from 2025 to 2030, yet current funding flows stand at only about $77 billion per year — leaving an annual shortfall of $278 billion. Louise Baker, Managing Director of the UNCCD Global Mechanism, has noted that achieving convention targets by 2030 will demand roughly $1 billion per day. At COP16 in Riyadh, countries and institutions pledged over $12 billion over seven years to assist 74 nations affected by drought and land degradation; a core task of COP17 is converting these commitments into tangible projects.

When questioned about the difficulty of attracting commercial and financial support, Gutiérrez-Espeleta offered a blunt assessment: "Even in the 21st century, humanity has still not overcome short-sightedness, has not overcome greed, and has not escaped the mindset of only valuing self-interest. That is lamentable." He observed that most multinational corporations remain focused solely on boosting stock values and production, while disregarding the waste they generate and the massive greenhouse gas emissions they produce. "We must change this," he insisted.

UNCCD data reveals that private sector investment in land restoration accounts for less than 6 percent of total funding. Gutiérrez-Espeleta commented: "If the private sector does not embrace a spirit of solidarity and does not hold the awareness that it is part of a larger whole, it will not understand that its purpose is not simply to endlessly profit in this world." Despite these concerns, he remains optimistic about the future: "As we move forward, more and more companies and private sector members will be willing to become part of the whole, recognizing that they are merely a small component of a larger system. Once they realize this, we can begin to secure more funding."

He also referenced the UNEP's seventh Global Environment Outlook report, for which he served as co-chair, warning that it clearly cautions humanity is heading toward an abyss if current directions remain unchanged. "We will reach tipping points across various systems, and once crossed, humanity will not be able to turn back for at least centuries," he warned. Employing the metaphor of a frog in gradually warming water, he explained: "The Earth is warming, and we fail to notice it. By the time we realize what is happening, it may already be too late."

Gutiérrez-Espeleta also detailed the International Drought Resilience Observatory, an AI-driven drought management platform he has led in developing. Launched as a prototype at COP16 in Riyadh and initiated by the International Drought Resilience Alliance — a global coalition hosted by UNCCD with over 70 member countries and organizations — the platform employs a "3x4" indicator system comprising three dimensions (anticipate, adapt, recover) and four assessment areas (built environment, natural environment, people and communities, and economy). The system leverages artificial intelligence to identify critical issues and utilizes global public data to provide quantitative assessments for individual countries. Data is collected through multiple channels, including user uploads, global datasets such as the European Union's Copernicus program, and remote sensing outputs, with immersive interactive visualization capabilities.

"With AI, we identify key issues related to specific combinations of dimensions and areas. By identifying these issues, we then examine which public variables or indicators are available in global databases to conduct a quantitative assessment of that combination," Gutiérrez-Espeleta explained. Scores range from 0 to 1, with low scores triggering "red flags" that alert decision-makers to areas requiring attention. "We do not tell users in the observatory what specifically to do, but we bring together people who genuinely think about these issues, and each national government decides for itself what needs to be done."

He emphasized that addressing drought must be a "whole-of-government" endeavor: "Dealing with drought in the 21st century requires the entire government's participation. This is a matter for the whole cabinet; everyone must be involved. It is essential to plan for the next five, ten, fifteen, twenty, and thirty years to strengthen national resilience." Drawing on his own experience — having led Costa Rica's drought task force during the severe drought of 2015 — he noted that "knowledge is the foundation for policy formulation and sound public decision-making. This must be taken seriously."

Currently, most countries assign drought response solely to environmental or agricultural ministries — an approach Gutiérrez-Espeleta considers misguided. "There are two ways of doing things: one is to act as 'firefighters,' waiting for events to occur and then extinguishing the flames; the other is to plan ahead, use knowledge, and integrate wisdom into decision-making to be prepared. We chose the latter path."

Regarding how data tools can assist countries in securing investment, he explained: "Once you have a dashboard and scores, you can identify your weaknesses and strengths and see the obvious gaps that need to be filled. It helps you determine areas requiring faster and more urgent investment." He also addressed potential concerns about the tool's application: "Some have asked whether financial institutions might use it to 'punish' countries with low scores. I do not believe that will happen, because what we are identifying here are opportunities for improvement, not targets for punishment. A low score signifies an opportunity to enhance national capacity."

With COP17 now underway in Ulaanbaatar, the international community watches closely whether parties can transform ambitious pledges into actionable outcomes — and whether the conference will be remembered as the moment the world finally committed to a comprehensive global response to drought.