- HE Dr. Amna bint Abdullah Al Dahak leads the UAE delegation to the 17th Conference of the Parties in Ulaanbaatar, advocating for integrated land-water action and climate finance.
- The UAE showcases its pioneering national initiatives in the water sector and extends a global invitation to delegations to participate in the ‘2026 UN Water Conference’ in Abu Dhabi.
- HE Dr. Al Dahak presents the UAE’s roadmap for global action leading to the 2026 UN Water Conference, based on sustainable water management and providing finance to achieve tangible impact.
Dubai, UAE, August 2026: Her Excellency Dr. Amna bint Abdullah Al Dahak, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, led a UAE delegation to participate in the seventeenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). The UAE participation reaffirmed the nation’s steadfast commitment to driving global land restoration, proactive drought resilience, and cross-convention environmental action.
Convening in Ulaanbaatar from 17 to 28 August 2026 under the theme ‘Restoring Land, Restoring Hope’, COP17 marks a critical milestone as the opening summit of the historic 2026 Rio Conventions Trio Year, the first of the three Rio Convention COPs to convene in 2026. The UAE is utilising this participation as a major platform to highlight the ‘2026 UN Water Conference’, which the country is hosting in Abu Dhabi this December, and to emphasise the close interlinkage between land restoration and water security. The summit gathers representatives from the 197 Parties to confront land degradation, desertification, and water scarcity, which are challenges collectively affecting more than 40% of the world’s landmass.
Her Excellency Dr. Amna bint Abdullah Al Dahak, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, stated: “The UAE’s active engagement at COP17 in Ulaanbaatar reinforces our shared regional and global determination to confront land degradation and drought with tangible, scalable solutions. In the UAE, living within a hyper-arid environment has taught us that protecting soil health, restoring ecosystems, and securing water resources are fundamental pillars of sustainable economic development.
“Guided by our National Strategy to Combat Desertification 2030, we have integrated land, water, biodiversity, and climate action into a cohesive national framework that fosters innovation, from advanced agritech solutions and rain enhancement science to expansive nature-based solutions. As we look ahead to co-hosting the 2026 UN Water Conference alongside Senegal in Abu Dhabi this December, the UAE remains deeply committed to serving as an inclusive global convener. We will continue uniting governments, financial institutions, and civil society to bridge the financing gap, scale breakthrough technologies, and elevate water and land resilience to the very top of the international sustainable development agenda”.
The UAE delegation participating in the conference included HE Mohammed Sultan Al Qurtasi Al Nuaimi, Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to Mongolia, and HE Dr. Mohammed Salman Al Hammadi, Assistant Undersecretary for the Food Diversity Sector at the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment. The delegation also comprised representatives from the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mohamed bin Zayed Raptor Conservation Fund, the National Centre of Meteorology, the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi, the Department of Municipalities and Transport, the Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority, Al Dhafra Region Municipality, Dubai Environment and Climate Change Authority, and Sharjah City Municipality.
Throughout high-level ministerial dialogues and specialised thematic sessions, the UAE delegation actively contributed to shaping global policy, demonstrating how national innovation, catalytic finance, and multilateral cooperation can transform environmental vulnerability into sustainable economic opportunity.
Unlocking Capital: Re-Engineering Finance for Land Restoration and Drought Resilience
Opening the High-Level Ministerial Dialogue on Finance Day (24 August), entitled ‘Innovative Financial Mechanisms for Healthy Land and Drought Resilience’, HE Dr. Amna bint Abdullah Al Dahak addressed international finance ministers, multilateral development banks (MDBs), and institutional investors. Her Excellency emphasised that mitigating land degradation is not a sectoral expenditure, but a high-yielding economic priority capable of generating an eight-to-one economic return.
Addressing the global annual financing gap of USD 278 billion required to meet 2030 land restoration targets, HE Dr. Al Dahak stressed that conventional grants and project-by-project approaches are insufficient to counter the USD 878 billion annual cost of global inaction. Instead, public and concessional capital must be deployed strategically to de-risk investment and crowd in private finance at scale.
Proactive Resilience: Elevating Drought Management from Crisis Response to Strategic Preparedness
On Water Day (25 August), HE Dr Amna Al Dahak participated in the Ministerial Dialogue on Drought Resilience, joining international leaders in the Plenary Hall to urge a decisive global transition from reactive emergency relief to proactive, long-term resilience.
Drawing from the UAE’s experience as a hyper-arid nation, Her Excellency shared how the country has embedded climate adaptation into the core of its national planning through the UAE Water Security Strategy 2036. The comprehensive strategy coordinates all aspects of the national water architecture to guarantee sustainable, uninterrupted access under both baseline and extreme drought conditions.
Her Excellency also highlighted the innovative approach adopted by the UAE to decouple water production from fossil fuel sources by expanding the use of energy-efficient reverse osmosis desalination technology. Her Excellency outlined three universal pillars necessary to achieve global drought resilience, which included Forward-Looking Governance; Science, Data, and Early Warning; and Sustainable and Blended Finance.
Water as a Strategic Connector Across the Rio Conventions:
Delivering the Keynote Address at the high-level event ‘Water as a Connector: Building Momentum from UNCCD COP17 to the 2026 UN Water Conference’, co-organised with UNECE, UNESCO, WMO, and UN-Water, HE Dr. Al Dahak highlighted water as the indispensable connective tissue uniting climate, biodiversity, and land agendas.
Her Excellency called on the international community to dismantle institutional silos by embedding concrete, measurable water targets directly into national climate (UNFCCC), land (UNCCD), and biodiversity (CBD) commitments. This integrated approach contributes to accelerating Priority Collaborative Action 3 under the UN System-wide Strategy for Water and Sanitation.
From Ulaanbaatar to Abu Dhabi: 3 Strategic Pillars to Unite Land, Water, and Climate Efforts
Her Excellency explained that the message directed from Ulaanbaatar to Abu Dhabi is clear and based on three fundamental pillars. First: Land restoration and drought resilience depend fundamentally on sustainable water management. Second: Enhancing coherence across the water, land, climate, and biodiversity sectors must be matched by financing partnerships and capacity building needed to turn this integrated action into actual results. Third: Solutions must be practical, scalable, and responsive to the national realities of each country, to ensure a tangible impact on the ground.
To showcase the UAE’s leadership in providing practical solutions for water scarcity, Her Excellency highlighted the ‘Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative’, which aims to accelerate the development and application of innovative and global solutions to address water scarcity challenges. Her Excellency also pointed to the role of the ‘Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Water Award’ in fostering innovation in clean water solutions powered by renewable energy, and the ‘Abu Dhabi Global Water Platform’, which seeks to mobilise USD 2 billion in funding to support high-impact water projects aimed at reaching approximately 10 million people worldwide.
Concluding her interventions, HE Dr. Amna Al Dahak extended an open invitation to all Member States and international partners to attend the 2026 UN Water Conference in Abu Dhabi, calling on them to bring their most ambitious ideas and initiatives to unite the land and water agendas, and to translate shared commitments into tangible global action.
The outcomes established in Ulaanbaatar will feed into the preparatory roadmap for the 2026 UN Water Conference, scheduled to take place from 8 to 10 December 2026 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC). Co-hosted by the UAE and Senegal, the conference will provide an action-oriented platform centered around six interactive dialogues: Water for People, Water for Prosperity, Water for Planet, Water for Cooperation, Water in Multilateral Processes, and Investments for Water.
On the sidelines of the Conference of the Parties, HE Dr. Amna bint Abdullah Al Dahak held a series of bilateral meetings to enhance joint international cooperation in the fields of environment and climate. Her Excellency met with HE Battsetseg Batmunkh, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia (the host country) and President of UNCCD COP17, to discuss joint efforts and support global momentum towards the 2026 UN Water Conference. Her Excellency also held a bilateral meeting with HE Aziz Abdukhakimov, Advisor to the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
The UAE’s participation in COP17 reflects an integrated national approach that connects land management, water security and transformative climate finance, as a single, indivisible system. As the 2026 UN Water Conference approaches in Abu Dhabi, the country continues to translate its international commitments into tangible actions and effective partnerships, reaffirming that genuine environmental action is measured not by declarations, but by real-world impact.
