The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) took place in Mongolia, a country plagued by desertification, droughts, and dzud winters—severe periods of heavy snow and harsh, cold weather, followed by summer drought. Millions of farm animals die of cold and starvation, leaving a scarring impact on Mongolian herders, who constitute a major part of the economy. These are direct results of global warming and climate change; failing to reach a consensus to thwart droughts exposes how we might be trading off sustainability for short-term gains, with Puerto Rico being the latest in a long list of victims.
Extreme Drought in 44 Percent of Puerto Rico
Normally, the rainy season in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico starts in May, but 2026 has been vastly different. By late August, three-quarters of the territory is in moderate drought. Some areas have received barely a fifth of their usual rainfall. Extreme drought covers 44% of Puerto Rico, prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency in July. Recently, a federal drought disaster declaration was issued by the U.S. government.
The dry conditions have led to water shortages and rationing, with water supply returning every two days. However, Puerto Rican households aren’t strangers to the catastrophe, especially having faced severe droughts in 2015 and the devastating effects of Hurricane María in 2017. Aging infrastructure and leaking pipelines have severely plagued the water supply.
A lack of rainfall, along with higher temperatures, has only worsened the water crisis. San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, faced the driest July in 120 years. Climate change is distorting the distribution of rainfall in the Caribbean, and the effects are quite visible. Dry soils have made it difficult to cultivate fruits, cacao, banana, and coffee plants. Ranchers, on the other hand, are dealing with a dwindling supply of hay.
Decisions to Combat Drought Deferred to COP18
Delegates from 196 nations and EU officials attended COP17, a rather humble climate summit to tackle droughts and desertification. However, the conference came at a time that calls for urgency, and everyone agreed that droughts are a serious problem. England, for example, is facing its hottest summer on record, with 71 percent of the country struck by drought. Yet, the conclusion that the conference arrived at was to defer discussions to COP18, scheduled to take place in Egypt in 2028.
“Incredibly, governments have failed to agree an approach to tackling drought despite the ever growing list of drought disasters around the world. Just this year, Europe has suffered a historic drought, while a strengthening El Niño could fuel devastating droughts from southern Africa to Amazonia. We believed that the world’s worsening droughts would force the world’s governments to act. We were wrong.”, said Richard Lee, Head of Communications, Wetlands International.
The negotiation room was split from the start. South Africa, on behalf of Togo and the African Group, asked for a legally binding global drought protocol, which the UK and Australia rejected. India and Suriname called for flexibility instead of a one-size-fits-all approach.
Susan Ann Samuel, Postdoctoral Researcher, International Climate Politics, University of Leeds, notes that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory recognizes droughts as an issue that affects basic human rights, rather than an unfortunate and unforeseen event.
She writes in her article on The Conversation:
“While advisory opinions are not legally binding, they carry considerable legal authority and political weight – and often shape how international treaties are translated into domestic lawmaking, court decisions, and implementation on the ground.
Yet that advisory opinion went unmentioned across the entire COP17. I heard no mention of it during negotiations, at side events, or in the pavilions. That silence was striking.”
Drought Map to Support Emergency Response
U.S. Drought Monitor maps have been published since 1999 and are used at all levels of authority to help guide drought response decisions. David Mocko, a senior research scientist in the Hydrological Sciences Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said the effects of the unusually hot and dry conditions were visible across multiple types of satellite and ground-based data used by the U.S. Drought Monitor.
NASA has supported the project for years with observations and scientific expertise, with Mocko and Jonathan Case of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center being the first NASA scientists to produce weekly maps.
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