The One Water Summit is an international summit held in Riyadh on December 3, 2024, to discuss environmental challenges related to water scarcity and drought. This took place concurrently with the sixteenth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP 16), which was held from 2-13 December 2024 in Riyadh.
Attendance of the One Water Summit
The One Water Summit was held, opened by Crown Prince and Prime Minister His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and co-chaired by the Crown Prince, French President Emmanuel Macron, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, and World Bank President Ajay Banga.
During the opening of the summit, the Crown Prince delivered a speech in which he emphasized that the summit was held in conjunction with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia hosting the sixteenth UNCCD COP 16, which aims to reduce land degradation and drought, as land is the primary reservoir for freshwater.
World Water Organization
In his speech, the Crown Prince stated that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia worked to include water issues for the first time in the G20 agenda during its presidency in 2020. Additionally, Saudi Arabia has provided over USD6 billion in funding to support more than two hundred development projects in the water sector across more than sixty developing countries. Saudi Arabia is also preparing to host the eleventh edition of the World Water Forum in 2027 in cooperation with the World Water Council.
The speech also included the announcement of Saudi Arabia’s establishment of the World Water Organization, headquartered in Riyadh, which aims to enhance and integrate the efforts of countries and organizations in addressing water challenges comprehensively. This organization will work to tackle global water-related issues by unifying international efforts, providing comprehensive solutions to water challenges, facilitating the exchange of expertise and innovative technologies, and promoting research and development in this field.
Objectives of the One Water Summit
The One Water Summit, announced on the sidelines of COP28 in partnership with Saudi Arabia, aims to enhance global water governance. It also seeks to serve as a hub for tangible solutions to address water challenges in preparation for the United Nations Water Conference in 2026.
The summit brought together countries, international organizations, financial institutions, and the private sector for global discussions on possible solutions to address challenges in the water sector and its financing within environmental contexts. This comes amid the growing global water crisis caused by climate factors, biodiversity loss, and pollution.
COP16 Riyadh
The COP16 Riyadh conference is the first UNCCD conference to be held in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It is also the first event under the convention to introduce the Green Zone concept, in addition to being the largest multilateral conference of its kind. According to the UNCCD, land degradation affects approximately 40 percent of the Earth's land areas, impacting the lives of more than 3.2 billion people annually. Additionally, one hundred million ha of land deteriorate each year, while the frequency and intensity of droughts have increased by nearly one-third since 2000.
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