UN talks fail to reach agreement on dealing with rising risk of global drought

Despite two weeks of U.N.-sponsored talks in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh, the participating 197 nations failed to agree on a plan to deal with global droughts, made longer and more severe by a warming climate. The biennial talks, known as COP 16 and organized by a UN body that deals with combating desertification and droughts, attempted to create strong global mandates to legally bind nations to fund early warning systems and build resilient infrastructure in poorer countries. During the talks, which ended early Saturday, the UNCCD released a report warning that if global warming trends continue, nearly five billion people will be affected by the end of the century.