Afghanistan will attend COP29 which opens Monday in Azerbaijan, a first since the return to power of the Taliban government in 2021, recognized by no state in the world but which pleads to be associated with international climate discussions.
“An Afghan government delegation will be in Baku”declared to AFP Abdul Qahar Balkhi, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Afghanistan, the sixth most vulnerable country to climate change, is struggling to cope with flash floods, droughts and other natural disasters that scientists link to climate change. In May alone, more than 350 Afghans died in floods.
The Afghan Environment Agency (NEPA) has already been invited to international summits but its officials have never until now obtained the necessary visas to participate, Rouhollah Amin, in charge of change, explained to AFP. climate at NEPA.
The status of the Afghan delegation at COP29 – which will bring together 198 countries at least until November 22 – was not immediately clear but sources told AFP that it could obtain that of“observer”.
After Baku, Kabul hopes to obtain visas from Riyadh to then attend the COP16 on desertification in Saudi Arabia in December, he continues, without being able to give more details on the delegation that Afghanistan could send there.
Azerbaijan, a hydrocarbon exporting nation stuck between Russia and Iran, reopened its embassy in Kabul in February, without officially recognizing the Taliban government.
“A humanitarian subject”
NEPA, for its part, continues to plead so that the breakdown in cooperation between Kabul and the world does not apply to environmental issues.
“Climate change is a humanitarian subject”recently reiterated to AFP his number two, Zainulabedine Abid. “We call on the international community not to link climate change issues to politics”he insisted.
Afghanistan, then held by the former regime of the Islamic Republic, supported by a Western coalition routed by the Taliban three years ago, signed the Paris Agreement in 2015 supposed to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
As such, Kabul is supposed to present its “Nationally determined contributions” (CDN) to the rest of the signatories.
This file began to be compiled before the Taliban government returned to power.
“In 2023, we decided that we must at least finalize this document, whether the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change accepts it or not”says Mr. Amin. “It’s a national issue”he insists, “we need to fill out this document”.
The Taliban authorities had believed for a time that they could participate in COP28 held last year in the United Arab Emirates, a country which has already hosted several Taliban leaders. But, due to lack of invitation and visas, they had to pass their turn.
The director general of NEPA, Mawlawi Matioul Haq Khalis – a former Taliban negotiator and the son of Younous Khalis, one of the figures of modern jihadism – recently denounced this forced absence, calling on the international community to change the situation at COP29 , according to the Bakhtar state agency.
Because, invariably, NEPA recalls the figures: in 2019, Afghanistan was responsible for 0.08% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
“It’s nothing” and, yet, Afghanistan is one of the countries “most affected by climate change”laments Mr. Amin.
