‘Desertification is nearly as critical as climate change’ - Interview with Dr. Mansour N'Diaye, Chef De Cabinet of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification secretariat

The sands across the world are crawling, turning vast stretches of land into desert each year. Their relentless march, invading villages, farmlands and water bodies, has made millions of people ecological refugees across the world. Desertification is not just an ecological issue but also one of shrinking food and water supplies, a loss of jobs and mass migration. June 17 is annually observed as World Day to Combat Desertification. Dr. Mansour N'Diaye, Chef De Cabinet of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) secretariat, spoke to K.P.M. Basheer onthe need for setting a sustainable development goal of “zero net land degradation by 2030” at the Rio+20 meet. The interview took place during a visit organised by the UNCCD to Chifeng, a city in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. A large part of Inner Mongolia's territory is desert. The desert storms emerging from there reach up to Beijing. Excerpts:

Evaporation from land only modifies rainfall frequency

A team of researchers has found that evaporation from the land only modifies the frequency of summertime rainfall, and not its quantity.“This is a major shift in our understanding of the coupling between the land surface and the atmosphere, and fundamental for our understanding of the prolongation of hydrological extremes like floods and droughts,” said Pierre Gentine, assistant professor of Applied Mathematics at The Fu Foundation School for Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University.

Climate change: Talks jolted by surge in greenhouse gas emissions

The record leap in global greenhouse gas emissions last year has thrown the spotlight on the world’s only concerted attempt to stem the tide of global warming — the United Nations climate negotiations.Next week, governments will convene in Bonn, Germany, for the latest round of more than 20 years of tortuous talks, aimed at forging a binding international agreement on climate change which so far has eluded them.

Nobel laureates prepare memorandum on global sustainability

Nobel laureates and environmental researchers Wednesday resumed discussions on the challenges of climate change and poverty to global sustainability.The 50-strong gathering in Stockholm, in the presence of Swedish King Carl Gustaf, including about 20 Nobel laureates was the third of its kind since 2007.The aim is to influence upcoming international environmental meetings, including next year’s United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Climate renewables can power the world - IPCC study

Renewable energy could account for almost 80% of the world’s energy supply within four decades — but only if governments pursue the policies needed to promote green power, according to a landmark report published on Monday.The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the body of the world’s leading climate scientists convened by the United Nations, said that if the full range of renewable technologies were deployed, the world could keep greenhouse gas concentrations to less than 450 parts per million, the level scientists have predicted will be the limit of safety beyond which climate change becomes catastrophic and irreversible.