An Afghan delegation will attend the upcoming UN climate change summit in Azerbaijan, a foreign ministry spokesman told AFP on Saturday, the first since the Taliban government came to power.
Afghanistan is ranked as the sixth most vulnerable country to climate change and Taliban officials have insisted on attending the COP summit, saying their political isolation should not bar them from international climate talks.
After trying and failing to attend the UN climate change summit in Egypt and the UAE, the invitation came from this year’s COP29 host Azerbaijan.
“An Afghan government delegation will be in Baku for the summit starting on Monday in the Azerbaijani capital,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said.
It was not immediately clear in what capacity the delegation would participate in COP29, but sources indicated it would have observer status.
No state has recognized the Taliban government since it came to power in 2021, ousting the Western-backed administration.
Officials at the country’s National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) have repeatedly said climate change should not be politicized and have called for the restoration of environmental projects stalled due to the Taliban takeover.
“Climate change is a humanitarian issue,” NEPA deputy chief Zainulabedin Abid told AFP in a recent interview.
“We call on the international community not to mix climate change issues with politics.”
Azerbaijan, a fossil fuel-rich former Soviet republic located between Russia and Iran, will host COP29 from November 11-22.
Baku reopened its embassy in Kabul in February this year, although it has not officially recognized the Taliban government.
Ruhullah Amin, the agency’s climate change director, told AFP in a recent interview that NEPA had been invited to other environmental summits in the past, but did not get a visa.
The agency has received invitations and is working on securing visas to attend the United Nations Summit on Desertification in Saudi Arabia, Amin said, but it is unclear whether they will receive them or what level of eligibility they will receive. There will be participation.
Afghanistan was a signatory to the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement, under which almost every country in the world agreed to cut emissions to limit rising global temperatures.
Before the Taliban came to power, NEPA was preparing its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) – which was expected to be updated and strengthened every five years.
‘All aspects of our lives’
NEPA has since been working to complete the NDC, despite uncertainty that it will be accepted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat.
“In 2023 we decided that at least we have to finalize this document, whether the secretariat accepts it or not,” Amin said.
“But as a national issue… we have to complete this document.”
According to local media, NEPA Director General Mawlawi Matiul Haq Khalis – a former Taliban negotiator and son of prominent jihadist leader Mawlawi Yunus Khalis – had criticized Afghanistan’s exclusion from the COP in Dubai last year and other countries in Baku. Was requested to facilitate participation. Informed.
He also demanded compensation for Afghanistan’s losses caused by climate change.
According to Amin, Afghanistan’s total greenhouse gas emissions were only 0.08 percent as per the 2019 national report.
“It’s very low,” he said. Nevertheless, Afghanistan is one of the “countries most affected by the impacts of climate change”.
“It affects all aspects of our lives.”
The United Nations has also called for action to help Afghanistan build resilience and for the country’s participation in international negotiations.
Afghanistan, one of the world’s poorest countries after decades of war, is particularly exposed to the effects of climate change, which scientists say is driving extreme weather conditions.
Stephen Rodrigues, the UN Development Agency representative in Afghanistan, said in 2023 that drought, floods, land degradation and declining agricultural productivity are the major threats.
Flash floods in May killed hundreds of people and swamped much agricultural land in Afghanistan, where 80 percent of people depend on farming for survival.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
