Iraq has been ranked as the fifth most vulnerable country to climate change, following the extreme weather events that have threatened the Iraqi population and increased the necessity of the country’s participation at the 27th annual United Nations Conference on Climate Change.
According to reports, over 100 representatives from the government, civil society, the youth and women made up the Iraqi delegation to COP27. The country had a youth delegation for the first time this year, with three young representatives. The majority of the Iraqi delegation’s participants in the negotiations were women.
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The historic decision to create a “loss and damage” fund for poor nations, which the Iraqi negotiators, the G77 Group, and the Arab Group vigorously fought for, brought the Summit to an end early on Sunday.
The Paris Agreement’s clauses on Carbon Markets and Technology Transfer were also actively negotiated by Iraqi negotiators.
Meetings with the UNFCCC, UN Regional Collaboration Centers, Adaptation Fund, NDC Partnership, Green Climate Fund, Global Environment Facility, UNEP, and UN-Habitat were attended by the delegation.
With the help of global climate funds, the team was successful in securing greater technical and financial aid for Iraq.
“Iraq’s robust engagement at COP27 this year echoes the important impact of climate change on our country,” says Zena Ali-Ahmad, the UNDP’s resident representative in Iraq. The UNDP is currently concentrating on the environment in Iraq, including the negative effects of climate change on Iraq’s most vulnerable populations. Throughout Iraq’s delicate recovery period, UNDP will continue to assist Iraq in preventing additional consequences and mitigating the effects of climate change on development.
The Iraqi Deputy Minister of Environment, Dr Jasim Abdulazeez Humadi says, “This conference is of particular importance given the serious challenges that climate change imposes on the region and the world. We are suffering from the imminent danger of drought and land degradation and drought in addition to a big decline in our water resources, and this, of course, is one of the essential issues that we are working on with a promising government program.”
UNDP Iraq’s Environment, Energy, and Climate Change Programme implement projects that aim to promote environmental sustainability and community resilience through mapping and addressing the risks associated with environmental degradation, climate change and disasters, in addition to working closely with the Iraqi government through the Ministry of Environment to support the implementation of its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).
Story was adapted from reliefweb.
