UN adopts plan to combat dust and sand storms

The United Nations General Assembly declared on Wednesday that the next decade (2025 to 2034) is the decade to combat sand and dust storms that are increasing and threatening health and economies around the world.

Uganda's UN Ambassador Godfrey Koba, who introduced the resolution on behalf of the Group of 77, a UN body that includes 134 developing countries and China, told the 193-member General Assembly that the initiative aims to "stop and mitigate the negative impacts of sand and dust storms through international and regional cooperation."

The Assembly adopted the resolution unanimously with a hammer blow from the President of the General Assembly, Dennis Francis.

Under the decade-long initiative adopted on Wednesday, the General Assembly said the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization will promote desertification mitigation practices in affected countries, including "sound land-use management, afforestation and reforestation, and land restoration programmes."

The resolution also calls for global cooperation to strengthen early warning systems and exchange weather information to predict dust and sand storms.

The adoption of the resolution comes two days before the International Day for Combating Sand and Dust Storms on July 12, which was declared by the General Assembly last year and will be celebrated for the first time.

The resolution called on States to observe the day through educational and other activities that raise public awareness of the importance of combating sand and dust storms for public health, improving land use, and enhancing “resilience to climate change.”

In a 2022 report, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification noted that sand and dust storms “have increased significantly in frequency in recent years.”

The report added that storms can exacerbate respiratory diseases, kill crops and livestock, and increase desertification, although documentation of their impact is limited.

The agreement estimated that 2 trillion tons of sand and dust enter the atmosphere annually, most of it in dry and sub-humid areas with sparse vegetation, and that the majority of emissions are caused by natural conditions, but drought and climate change are exacerbating the problem.

The report also estimated that "at least 25 percent of global dust emissions are due to human activities" such as poor land management and indiscriminate water use.