Iraq’s prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on Sunday promised improved efforts to tackle climate change which has affected millions of people across the country and created setbacks for government plans including the plans to meet a third of the country’s electricity demands using renewable energy.
The troubled Middle East country has been hit by climate change woes for years as droughts and increased water salinity have destroyed crops, animals and farms and dried up entire bodies of water. It has also led to rampant sandstorms that have increased respiratory illnesses in the country and inhibits Iraq’s ongoing struggle to combat cholera.
“More than seven million citizens have been affected in Iraq … and hundreds of thousands have been displaced because they lost their livelihoods that rely on agriculture and hunting,” Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said in a speech to open the two-day Iraq Climate Conference in Basra.
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Al-Sudani said the Iraqi government is working on a national plan that consists of a series of measures, such as building renewable energy plants, modernizing inefficient and outdated irrigation techniques, reducing carbon emissions, combating desertification, and protecting the country’s biodiversity, as part of climate actions the government hopes to take by 2030.
The projects also include a massive afforestation initiative, with Iraq on course to plant 5 million trees across the country and hopes to provide one-third of the country’s electricity demand through renewable energy instead of fossil fuel.
Al-Sudani said he is hoping to organize a regional conference on climate change in Baghdad in the near future as well after industrial developments in neighboring countries have also compounded Iraq’s water woes.
Iraq relies on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which flow into the country from Turkey and Iran, for nearly all of its water needs. Water shortages have worsened in Iraq after those countries constructed dams that have either blocked or diverted water.
Climate change and its impact on Iraq’s water resources and agriculture also comes at an economic cost, destroying people’s livelihoods and making it more likely for Iraq to hike up its imports for basic staples that were once heavily produced in the country, such as wheat. The government once subsidized seeds, fertilizer and pesticides to soften the blow of increasing costs on wheat farmers and maintain a high level of production, but slashed them two years ago.
Story was adapted from AP.
