Saudi Investment Boosts Global Efforts to Combat Sand & Dust Storms

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has announced a USD 10 million investment to support Saudi’s global sand and dust storm monitoring initiative over the next five years. Launched during the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) at COP16, this funding aims to expand existing international monitoring efforts and enhance the capacity of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) to track these environmental phenomena.

Each year, an estimated two billion tonnes of sand and dust are released into the atmosphere, roughly equivalent in weight to 350 Great Pyramids of Giza, with over 25% attributed to human activities. To address this, the Kingdom has expanded the Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System, based in Jeddah, which has grown its global network of WMO-affiliated nodes to four, now including Beijing, Barcelona and Barbados.

The initiative follows Saudi Arabia’s launch of the Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership at the beginning of COP16, which has already secured USD 2.15 billion in financial backing.