11th Session of the UNCCD Conference of Parties to Combat Desertification

During the next two weeks participants expect to take Rio + 20 outcomes further that include defining scientific mechanisms to measure monitoring. The eleventh session of the Conference of the Parties (COP11) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) opened this afternoon in Windhoek, Namibia.

During the two-week session, the 195 parties will define the action needed to improve land management at all levels. They will also review the progress made in the last two years to combat desertification and drought, and to mitigate the effects of drought.

CO2 Will Adversely Impact Rainfall Around the World

Climate change causing greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2), will cause less rain in areas that need it most and more rain in areas that need it least. According to recent NASA findings areas that get a lot of rain will get more, those areas that get moderate rainfall will get less, and those areas that get little rainfall may get none at all.

NASA's research is the product of an analysis of the computer simulations from 14 climate models. They span 140 years and they show that warming from carbon dioxide will change the frequency that regions around the planet receive rain.