专题：对话ESG全球领导者
新浪财经ESG评级中心提供包括资讯、报告、培训、咨询等在内的14项ESG服务，助力上市公司传播ESG理念，提升ESG可持续发展表现。点击查看【ESG评级中心服务手册】在全球气候治理的棋盘上，土地问题长期处于相对边缘的位置。然而，随着极端天气事件频发、粮食安全压力加剧，以及可再生能源扩张与生态保护之间的张力日益凸显，土地退化已成为无法回避的核心议题。3月22日是世界水日，然而气候变化正在导致世界干旱频发，预计全球四分之三的人口到2050年都将面临干旱风险，如何应对水资源和土地危机是我们无法回避的问题。
亚斯敏·福阿德博士（Dr. Yasmine Fouad）是联合国副秘书长兼《联合国防治荒漠化公约》（UNCCD）执行秘书，正致力于将这一"沉默的危机"推向全球政策议程的中心。近期在与绿色金融60人论坛和新浪财经进行1.5°C Talk时，福阿德博士系统阐述了UNCCD在连接土地、能源、水与金融领域的战略构想，以及将于今年晚些时候在蒙古举行的UNCCD第十七次缔约方大会（COP17）的核心议题。
联合国副秘书长兼《联合国防治荒漠化公约》（UNCCD）执行秘书 亚斯敏·福阿德博士（Dr. Yasmine Fouad）
土地-能源-水：一个不可分割的纽带
当被问及可再生能源扩张与防治荒漠化之间是否存在矛盾时，福阿德博士给出了明确的回答："我们不能将两者对立看待，它们是一个整体解决方案的组成部分。"
这一判断建立在严峻的现实基础之上。据UNCCD统计，全球约40%的土地已经退化，而气候变化正是驱动土地退化的关键因素之一。福阿德博士指出，可再生能源恰恰是应对气候变化的核心解决方案，因此"我们需要找到一种综合规划的方式，在边际土地和旱地上部署可再生能源项目"。
她分享了多个创新案例来说明这种协同效应的可能性。在一些地区，农民开始在太阳能板下种植作物——这种被称为"农光互补"的模式，既发电又农耕，实现了土地的多重利用。此外，由可再生能源驱动的海水淡化项目正在将荒漠变为可耕地，展示了技术如何重塑人类与土地的关系。
这些案例揭示了一个核心理念：土地、能源和水并非孤立的政策领域，而是紧密交织的系统。福阿德博士强调，UNCCD正在推动各国采用综合规划方法，确保可再生能源的发展不仅不加剧土地退化，反而成为土地恢复的动力。
撬动私营部门：从6%到无限可能
资金缺口是土地恢复面临的最大障碍之一。福阿德博士透露，目前全球土地恢复资金中，仅有6%来自私营部门。这一比例与可再生能源领域形成鲜明对比——后者在2015年后吸引了大量私人资本。
"我们需要复制可再生能源领域的成功经验，"福阿德博士表示。她特别提到了多边开发银行（MDBs）在降低资本风险方面的关键作用。在2015年巴黎气候大会之后，多边开发银行通过提供风险担保、优惠贷款等机制，有效撬动了私人资本进入可再生能源领域。UNCCD希望将这一模式移植到土地恢复领域。
为此，UNCCD发起了"Business4Land"（土地商业）倡议，旨在将矿业、建筑业、可再生能源等行业纳入土地恢复的行动框架。福阿德博士强调，私营部门不应仅仅是资金的提供者，更应参与综合土地利用规划的早期阶段，从源头避免土地退化。
绿色金融创新：韧性信用、债务互换与分类法
金融工具的创新是撬动私人资本的关键。福阿德博士详细介绍了UNCCD正在探索的多项机制。
首先是"韧性信用"（Resilience Credit）。这一概念类似于碳信用，但聚焦于土地恢复和干旱韧性。企业可以通过投资土地恢复项目获得韧性信用，用于抵消其环境足迹或满足监管要求。
其次是债务互换（Debt Swap）。在这一机制下，债权国同意减免债务国的部分债务，条件是债务国将释放的资金用于土地恢复和生态保护项目。该模式已经在一些国家取得成功。
第三是分类法（Taxonomy）的制定。绿色债券等金融工具需要清晰的分类标准，才能吸引机构投资者。"所有这些工具都需要经过测试和验证，"福阿德博士坦言。UNCCD的全球机制（Global Mechanism）作为执行机构，正与全球环境基金（GEF）等机构合作，在多个试点项目中测试这些金融工具的有效性。
国际合作展望：从危机管理到主动预防
2026年，UNCCD第17次缔约方大会（COP17）将在蒙古举行，主题为"恢复土地，重燃希望"（Restoring Land, Restoring Hope）。福阿德博士对此次大会寄予厚望。
她透露，COP17将首次设立"水日"（Water Day，8月25日），凸显水资源在土地恢复中的核心地位。此外，大会还将设置金融日（Finance Day，8月24日），专门讨论绿色金融机制和私营部门参与。
福阿德博士期待COP17能在三个领域取得实质性成果：草原保护决策、干旱应对政策框架，以及沙尘暴防治决策。这些议题直接关系到蒙古及中亚地区的生态安全，也具有全球意义。
更重要的是，福阿德博士希望COP17能够推动思维方式的转变——从"危机管理"转向"主动预防"。她指出，目前全球对干旱的应对主要是事后响应，而UNCCD希望建立预警系统和早期行动机制，在干旱造成不可逆损害之前就采取行动。
福阿德博士特别向金融机构发出了邀请。她表示，8月24日的金融日将从三个角度展开讨论：干旱韧性、Business4Land，以及创新金融机制。"这是一个一石多鸟的机会，"福阿德博士强调。投资土地恢复不仅能实现土地保护目标，还能同时贡献于气候行动和生物多样性保护。
AI赋能：技术创新的新前沿
在技术层面，福阿德博士透露UNCCD正在组建内部工作组，探索人工智能在防治荒漠化中的应用。她特别提到了地理空间分析和干旱预测两个领域。
通过AI技术，UNCCD可以更精确地监测土地退化趋势，预测干旱发生的时间和地点，从而为政策制定和资源配置提供科学依据。这一工作将通过科学与政策委员会（CST）推进，确保技术创新能够转化为实际的政策行动。
结语：最明智的投资
对话接近尾声时，福阿德博士向青年、公众和金融机构传递了统一的信息：保护土地不仅是环境优先事项，更是"最明智的投资"。
她指出，土地是连接生物多样性和气候变化的基石。没有健康的土地，就无法实现碳中和目标；没有可持续的土地利用，就无法保障粮食安全。在这个意义上，土地恢复是一项具有多重回报的投资——它创造就业、增强韧性、保护生态，并为子孙后代留下可生存的家园。
对于希望参与这一事业的年轻人，福阿德博士表示UNCCD提供了连接科学、政策和伙伴关系的平台，如专注动员青年投身于土地可持续管理的青年组（Youth Cacus），还有促进UNCCD所有政策在性别平等方面（gender-responsive）的性别组（Gender Cacus）等。无论是从事研究、创业还是政策工作，欢迎每个人都通过这些方式投身于与UNCCD一起抗击土地荒漠化的行动中来。
2026年是联合国大会设立的国际草原与牧民年，COP17关注牧民的声音和草原生态系统，也将是检验全球土地治理决心的重要时刻。福阿德博士希望，届时各国能够拿出"恢复土地，重燃希望"的具体承诺，将土地从"沉默的危机"转变为"行动的机遇"。
英文原文如下：
Q: As the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), you have been dedicated to promoting global efforts to combat land degradation and foster sustainable land use. Given the intertwined challenges of climate change and land degradation, issues such as renewable energy development, South-South cooperation, and deforestation in supply chains have drawn increasing international attention. To begin, how do you view the opportunities and challenges that large-scale renewable energy deployment presents for land resources and desertification control?
A: In a world that is facing vast and intensive global environmental challenges, we cannot begin the discussion by picking and choosing between renewable energy expansion or the fight against desertification or combating desertification.
In this world, I think that it's very important that we look at that as a package where renewable energy can support sustainable land management. But the challenge is how you can do that when you already know that up to forty percent of the world's land is already degraded and you need to restore those kinds of land.
Another argument when you look at it, when you are dealing with land degradation, climate change is one of the drivers for that and renewable energy is a solution in order to mitigate the impact of climate change.
And I think that one important part, if you think of integrating that, is number one, the challenge would be that more lands are degraded, so we need to restore land, but we need to expand renewable energy in order to fight climate change.
So in order to make that kind of compromise, it's important to start having a careful integrated plan and sustainable land management planning in that process at the national and at the regional level.
And there would be examples that we would use in order to expand renewable energy not at the cost of the land, because the land at the end of the day is the source for our food security.
So let us take marginal land or dry land. Can we use renewable energy? Because it takes a lot of space on those kinds of land.
But you can still be very smart while using that in a way that you still provide food for the people.
For an example of that, if we take desalination projects, although they are of a high cost right now, implementing or designing desalination projects that is using renewable energy in order to avail water for agriculture could be one good idea because still the discussion would not be only land or renewable energy.
It's land, water and energy to provide food.
This could be a good example on how you can maintain that kind of balance.
Another one when you're doing large amounts of solar energy. This solar energy in some places because of the very intensive heat may not be — if you just do it in the same place, the agriculture and the crops could not be produced, but having those solar energy installations that would act as shade in order to have agriculture and have some crops underneath could be also another idea.
There are some ideas around the world that need to be replicated and upscaled because they have already been piloted.
Q: Renewable energy projects, such as solar and wind farms, often require vast land areas and may impact ecosystems in arid regions. How does UNCCD advocate for balancing renewable energy expansion with land protection? At the policy level, what recommendations do you have for governments and private sectors to ensure that the energy transition does not exacerbate land degradation?
A: One important part is that when we are working on integrated land use planning, as much as we are synchronizing and detailing the stakeholders that would be involved, the private sector should be part of that.
But within that discussion is also the discussion of are we integrating sustainable land management into the renewable energy strategies that the country would do. That's number one at the policy level.
Number two, let us take an example from our land convention, which is Business for Land.
Are we able to inform the private sector of bankable projects that can link land management or land restoration with renewable energy so we can double the effect and the outcome and yet provide opportunities for revenue for them?
That is something that needs to be tested at the level of the private sector. The third thing, how can we do that?
Within the land convention, we're lucky that part of the decisions that came out of COP16 was an initiative called Business for Land. And Business for Land here is not only talking about the agricultural land or land restoration.
It's also talking about other opportunities where we are, for example, examining the mining sector and how can they restore land.
We are examining the construction sector and this is an opportunity where the private sector join the initiative. They announce voluntary contributions and commitments in order to sustain the land that they are using.
Q: What role does UNCCD play in facilitating knowledge sharing, technology transfer, and financial support among developing countries? Are there any success stories you can share?
A: Yeah, thank you very much for that because part of the UNCCD and the beauty of it is that we have both the intergovernmental process, which is the COP decisions and consensus, that's the regular multilateral process, but we also within the convention have an implementing arm that's called the Global Mechanism.
And the Global Mechanism is a body that within the secretariat enables translating the decisions into actual implementation by providing resources. So let me divide your question into three parts.
First of all, if there is a decision on countries that they need to have additional measures on preparing drought management plans, that is beside the land degradation plans, we provide support for that by collaborating with the existing financial mechanisms outside the convention, such as but not limited to the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
Another example of technical support that we do provide for the developing countries is actual resources that would link land degradation, climate change and biodiversity together.
Currently, we are working with the other two sister conventions on a program that would support food security and food systems for regional countries.
Last thing is we're expanding on a new modality of not only trying to find resources that would bring land closer to biodiversity and climate, but we're expanding the private sector actual engagement by getting the multilateral development banks (MDBs) to de-risk the capital of the private sector to work on restoration and especially on drought mitigation.
We have recently launched in last October a new fund that's called the DRIF, the Drought Resilient Impact Facility, in collaboration with Luxembourg and that provides a number of pipeline projects that would be implemented by the private sector in order to mitigate drought, with another facility that would help the developing countries to work on implementation of their drought management plan called Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership (RGDRP).
Within both facilities, there is a knowledge hub, and the knowledge hub is meant to be exchanging experience of what works, what doesn't work, and how can we replicate and upscale in different countries.
For example, the Great Green Wall is a big initiative within the UNCCD that focuses on Africa in order to restore lands that already have been degraded, or would work more on fighting and mitigating the impact of drought.
So some projects that would, for an example, be implemented in Sahel would be replicated and upscaled in parts of South Africa.
And we have other more examples also in Asia and in Latin America, like the Peace Forest Initiative that supports exchange of knowledge and experiences among countries in the Asian region.
Q: Deforestation and forest degradation are closely linked to agricultural expansion, particularly the demand for land from livestock sectors such as the dairy industry. Recently, some international dairy companies have committed to eliminating deforestation risks in their supply chains. How effective do you consider these corporate initiatives? How does UNCCD collaborate with the private sector to promote sustainable land management practices?
A: The current figures are still behind what should be done actually in order to restore land and mitigate the impact of drought.
It's only six percent of global restoration finance would come from the private sector.
And for that reason, in COP16, there was that initiative endorsed by all parties on Business for Land initiative. We started by preparing awareness sessions and discussions with large private sector companies that are directly related to them.
By the way, everyone is using land. So if you talk about the construction, the renewable, the mining sector, the industry sector, everyone is using land. But those who are directly related to land are the livestock sectors, such as the dairy industry.
We got into that discussion with them and they are now part of the Business for Land initiative. We launched in Davos this year what's called the Champions Council that is focusing on Business for Land, and they started to look at what kind of voluntary commitments that they are going to put in order to restore land to ensure the sustainability of their business itself, number one, and number two, to reduce the risk of losing those kinds of land as long as they're still working.
In that kind of business, what they need actually, and that's what we are aiming to do within the next year, is what kind of projects can the private sector fund in order to mitigate the impact of drought and to restore land.
And from that perspective, we are preparing a package of projects that comes from the drought management plan from the government in order to be implemented by the private sector.
But that still would need the intervention of the multilateral development banks to de-risk their capital, very similar to the story of renewable energy.
If we go back to 2015, we would find that the cost of renewable energy was very high, the technology cost was very high.
What happened so that these technologies would be accessible and affordable within the developing countries?
It was the intervention of the multilateral development banks to de-risk the capital.
We're doing the same with the land. It's a journey. It's a long journey.
I cannot say it's an easy one, but I think that we will be able to reach there once we were able to get one or two bankable projects at scale in a region that will prove their feasibility and the revenue coming to the private sector.
Q: GF60 focuses on advancing green finance, and land restoration requires substantial investment. How can green finance mechanisms—such as green bonds and carbon credits—be more effectively channeled to support desertification control and sustainable land management projects? For investors, what key indicators should be used to assess the environmental and social benefits of land restoration initiatives?
A: There could be different mechanisms that would be used in mitigating drought and fighting desertification.
Resilience Credit and Debt Swap could be mechanisms that could be utilized within the financial mechanism of the convention in order to support countries in their journey of implementing their land degradation or fighting land degradation plans.
And another one that we're looking for is taxonomy, which is another area that we are right now testing in different countries that would help encourage more sustainable land management practices.
We will have an opportunity to test that within the upcoming two years because we will start working on the new strategic framework for the UNCCD. So whatever targets we will be putting — if we say we need fifty percent of the degraded land to be restored by 2040 or 2050 — we will need to have more innovative financial mechanisms such as those mechanisms, but they need to be tested first at the level of the country.
Carbon credit had proved in some places, it did not prove in other places, but we need also to ensure that the different developing countries are able to achieve their sustainable development not with so much debt within their economies.
Q: Later this year, the COP17 to UNCCD will be held in Mongolia. What are your main expectations for the conference?
A: We are expecting more work that would be done as a people-centered approach.
So one part is the operationalization of the Indigenous Peoples caucuses, the Local Community caucuses, and continue on the Gender and Youth caucuses because the UNCCD is a human-centered convention that should not only serve the parties but serve the people in a way of restoring land, restoring hope, which is the theme of the COP17 and giving hope to the people that we will be able to do it and multilateralism is still working.
Another part is the interlinkage between land and water nexus and that would be the first time that the UNCCD would endeavor into a whole day on a Water Day because you cannot work on water resources management, sustainable water resources management, if you don't have healthy soil and you cannot ensure healthy soil to be sustainable if you're not efficiently using water.
So the connection is very clear and we hope that we will be able to start that discussion in COP17, which is the first COP among the Rio Conventions that will take place this year in 2026.
From people to land and water, we aim to expand on the topic of food systems and food security because that would also be one part of the discussion that we would like to advance forward based on the agroforestry initiatives that supported small farmers in COP16.
We would like to engage more private sector into that discussion and move from Mongolia to Armenia and then to Turkey to have that discussion more at the operational level and not only at the political level.
How can we access more resources?
And last but not least, one of the important things that would be there for the investment packages is rangeland.
Mongolia is a country whose economy depends on rangeland and there could be huge opportunities if we are talking about the private sector engagement is to look at what will be the rangeland investment pipeline of projects that could be announced during that COP.
And there is good cooperation with the Business Council for Mongolia in planning into that.
And last but not least, responding to the needs of the developing countries, especially Africa, when they called for more work on drought, we will spare no efforts with the current COP16 presidency and the incoming COP17 presidency in ensuring that there will be a decision on drought, but also to have more resources that would be announced during that COP to work more on the proactive approach of implementing planning projects that would mitigate drought rather than reactive.
We cannot continue only in this world to manage crisis.
We need to be more proactive because simply prevention is less costly than managing the crisis.
Q: Given the current international situation, what specific outcomes do you hope to achieve at COP17?
A: A rangeland decision, which will be new to our process, and that has been also requested by a number of parties.
A second outcome that we would like to achieve is on drought, whether that will be a specific drought decision or a drought policy framework that would keep the discussion moving forward.
And another one which is also very important that maybe is not felt within the convention on land, which is the sand and dust storms.
Because the more you invest on sustainable land management practices, the more you mitigate the impact of sand and dust storms that would affect the business, that would affect the health of the people and the citizens.
This is something that we are now investing more time and effort and resources to come up with a decision that would bring more actions on the ground, such as the Global Sand and Dust Storm Implementation Initiative that will be launched in this COP and an actual decision would be there.
These are the mainly three outcomes.
Q: What message would you like to convey to the youth and the wider public who are concerned about climate change and land issues? How can they participate in supporting global efforts to combat desertification and restore land?
A: I would say that the UNCCD provides a unique opportunity for all stakeholders with the different caucuses that we have — the Gender, the Youth, the Indigenous Peoples and the Local Community — to connect science, policy and partnership for implementation on the ground.
So seize this opportunity and come to COP17 with your voices loud and clear with your ideas. And right now we're starting this kind of consultation with the youth and the local community online so that we would prepare for that.
And even the young parliamentarians would have a big role to play, which is different than all other COPs that we are getting the parliamentarians as part of that discussion.
The other message that I would like also to deliver is that protecting land is no more only an environmental priority, but it could be the smartest investment that we can put to ensure not only sustainability of the land management, but also the business case that could be articulated as land is the cornerstone of bringing closer biodiversity and climate change into that part.
Q: What messages do you have specifically for financial sectors?
A: I would invite them to come to the Finance Day that will take place on the 24th of August because there would be a big opportunity for them to look into the bankability of land restoration through different angles.
The first one is the drought mitigation or mitigate the impact of drought and drought resilience, where we would have the different facilities of the DRIF, the RGDRP, IDRA (International Drought Resilience Alliance), and these are all mechanisms within the UNCCD that can provide visibility to that.
The second one is the Business for Land, where the financial sector will find a huge number of private sector companies that are ready to restore land, but they would need to have more assurance from the MDBs for de-risking the capital.
The third discussion that would take place is what kind of innovative financial mechanisms that could accelerate land restoration from the experience of those financial institutions, especially that there has been a lot of trial and error in other sectors through different mechanisms that we spoke about like taxonomy, like debt swap, like green bonds.
All these things to be part of that discussion.
And last but not least, I think that we will not miss the opportunity of linking land, climate and biodiversity, so it will be a big win for the financial institutions to hit the target of land and working on that because you're hitting more than one stone in that part. Thank you.
Q: AI is really a hot topic nowadays. We talk about AI and using AI in different sectors. How do you envision AI contributing to the fight against desertification and land degradation?
A: That is a discussion that we're having internally in-house on how can artificial intelligence be of a transformative nature to the fight against desertification, the work on land degradation and drought.
We are forming a task force within the UNCCD to look into how, first of all, AI can be introduced within the institution as part of our institution in the regular day-to-day work. But how can AI be further applied within, for an example, the geospatial work of figuring out the places for the drought, what would be the possible quick solutions?
Because you cannot have a one size that fits all.
So this discussion is still ongoing within our work, but also will be going through the science and policy interface with the scientists that we work on as part of our CST (Committee on Science and Technology).
新浪财经ESG评级中心简介
新浪财经ESG评级中心是业内首个中文ESG专业资讯和评级聚合平台，致力于宣传和推广可持续发展，责任投资，与ESG（环境、社会和公司治理）价值理念，传播ESG的企业实践行动和榜样力量，推动中国ESG事业的发展，促进中国ESG评估标准的建立和企业评级的提升。
依托ESG评级中心，新浪财经发布多只ESG创新指数，为关注企业ESG表现的投资者提供更多选择。同时，新浪财经成立中国ESG领导者组织论坛，携手中国ESG领导企业和合作伙伴，通过环境、社会和公司治理理念，推动建立适合中国时代特征的ESG评价标准体系，促进中国资产管理行业ESG投资发展。
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